PostgreSQL funding/organization

Started by mlwover 24 years ago10 messages
#1mlw
markw@mohawksoft.com

Now that GreatBridge is gone. (I'm pretty sad about that, they looked like they
were working on some cool stuff.)

Has this changed, in any way, the development path of PostgreSQL?

#2Lamar Owen
lamar.owen@wgcr.org
In reply to: mlw (#1)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

On Thursday 20 September 2001 08:58 am, mlw wrote:

Now that GreatBridge is gone. (I'm pretty sad about that, they looked like
they were working on some cool stuff.)

Has this changed, in any way, the development path of PostgreSQL?

Just my personal opinion:

While PostgreSQL was developed prior to _any_ substantial funding through the
efforts of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group on volunteer basis, the
fact that Bruce, Tom, and Jan will have to make a living elsewhere might very
well impact the speed of development.

Although, Tom was doing an incredible amount of bugfixing long before Great
Bridge. Bruce was doing the same things before Great Bridge as he did while
employed at GB. Jan added PL/Tcl and PL/pgsql (and foreign keys, and many
other things) long before Great Bridge was on the map at all.

And the other three members of the core group have never been employed by
Great Bridge. And look at Vadim's, Thomas', and Marc's work.... I don't
think the lackof GB funding will impact the direction of development, even if
it does impact the speed of development.

And RedHat is still in the mix, as is PostgreSQL, Inc, and others. Great
Bridge wasn't the only game in town for PostgreSQL development.

Just one additional comment: PostgreSQL, being open source, isn't going to go
away because one company went away. If Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, or other
proprietary database vendors 'went away' the likelihood of their RDBMS
products being orphaned is high -- but PostgreSQL cannot be orphaned in that
sense due to its open source nature.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

#3Thomas Lockhart
lockhart@fourpalms.org
In reply to: mlw (#1)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

... but PostgreSQL cannot be orphaned in that
sense due to its open source nature.

I'll second that. It isn't just "the open source nature" of PostgreSQL
which will keep it viable, it is the active developer and user community
which has grown up around it which makes it unlikely that it will become
irrelevant. Other db efforts may try to get the open source gloss with
licensing and tarballs, but PostgreSQL actually has the process and
*people* which makes it successful.

- Thomas

#4Lamar Owen
lamar.owen@wgcr.org
In reply to: Thomas Lockhart (#3)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

On Thursday 20 September 2001 11:04 am, Thomas Lockhart wrote:

... but PostgreSQL cannot be orphaned in that
sense due to its open source nature.

I'll second that. It isn't just "the open source nature" of PostgreSQL
which will keep it viable, it is the active developer and user community

Sorry. My semantics are 'open source status'!='open source nature' -- having
an open source nature includes the developer community's openness. Many
projects have open source status -- few have an open source nature. I should
have clarified what I meant.

See my letter to Linux Weekly News from a few weeks ago to find out what I
see in 'open source nature.'
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

#5Marc G. Fournier
scrappy@hub.org
In reply to: Lamar Owen (#2)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Lamar Owen wrote:

On Thursday 20 September 2001 08:58 am, mlw wrote:

Now that GreatBridge is gone. (I'm pretty sad about that, they looked like
they were working on some cool stuff.)

Has this changed, in any way, the development path of PostgreSQL?

Just my personal opinion:

While PostgreSQL was developed prior to _any_ substantial funding through the
efforts of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group on volunteer basis, the
fact that Bruce, Tom, and Jan will have to make a living elsewhere might very
well impact the speed of development.

Although, Tom was doing an incredible amount of bugfixing long before Great
Bridge. Bruce was doing the same things before Great Bridge as he did while
employed at GB. Jan added PL/Tcl and PL/pgsql (and foreign keys, and many
other things) long before Great Bridge was on the map at all.

And, in fact, since GB came on the map, Jan has been so busy getting
across from Germany that he hasn't had much time to work on PgSQL, which
means that GB slowed down development to an extent ... balanced off with
Tom's increased development, but that is neither here nor there ...

Three things that GB provided for their $25million:

1. Tom's ability to focus on programming more
2. Bruce's ability to travel and evangelize(sp?) more
3. www.greatbridge.org

Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:

1. tom's wife will see more of him
2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him
3. www.greatbridge.org lives on as gborg.postgresql.org

Two things that won't change much:

1. Tom's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
2. Bruce's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs

IMHO ...

#6Lamar Owen
lamar.owen@wgcr.org
In reply to: Marc G. Fournier (#5)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

On Thursday 20 September 2001 12:47 pm, Marc G. Fournier wrote:

On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Lamar Owen wrote:

On Thursday 20 September 2001 08:58 am, mlw wrote:

Has this changed, in any way, the development path of PostgreSQL?

Just my personal opinion:

long before Great Bridge was on the map at
all.

Three things that GB provided for their $25million:

...

Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:

...

Two things that won't change much:

...

Good summary, Marc.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

#7Karel Zak
zakkr@zf.jcu.cz
In reply to: Marc G. Fournier (#5)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

On Thu, Sep 20, 2001 at 12:47:08PM -0400, Marc G. Fournier wrote:

Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:

1. tom's wife will see more of him
2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him

It seems that GB finish is their women conspiracy :-)

Karel

--
Karel Zak <zakkr@zf.jcu.cz>
http://home.zf.jcu.cz/~zakkr/

C, PostgreSQL, PHP, WWW, http://docs.linux.cz, http://mape.jcu.cz

#8Bruce Momjian
pgman@candle.pha.pa.us
In reply to: Marc G. Fournier (#5)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

Three things that GB provided for their $25million:

1. Tom's ability to focus on programming more
2. Bruce's ability to travel and evangelize(sp?) more
3. www.greatbridge.org

Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:

1. tom's wife will see more of him
2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him
3. www.greatbridge.org lives on as gborg.postgresql.org

Two things that won't change much:

1. Tom's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
2. Bruce's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs

Don't count us out yet. I belive I will find a job continuing to work
on PostgreSQL full-time and hope the others can do the same.

As for my wife, she actually saw more of me while I was at GB because
before I had a full-time job _and_ worked on PostgreSQL several hours a
day. With GB, I only worked on PostgreSQL, which freed up lots of time.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
#9Marc G. Fournier
scrappy@hub.org
In reply to: Bruce Momjian (#8)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

On Sat, 22 Sep 2001, Bruce Momjian wrote:

Three things that GB provided for their $25million:

1. Tom's ability to focus on programming more
2. Bruce's ability to travel and evangelize(sp?) more
3. www.greatbridge.org

Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:

1. tom's wife will see more of him
2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him
3. www.greatbridge.org lives on as gborg.postgresql.org

Two things that won't change much:

1. Tom's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
2. Bruce's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs

Don't count us out yet. I belive I will find a job continuing to work
on PostgreSQL full-time and hope the others can do the same.

Wasn't counting any of you out in the above *scratch head*

#10Bruce Momjian
pgman@candle.pha.pa.us
In reply to: Marc G. Fournier (#9)
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization

On Sat, 22 Sep 2001, Bruce Momjian wrote:

Three things that GB provided for their $25million:

1. Tom's ability to focus on programming more
2. Bruce's ability to travel and evangelize(sp?) more
3. www.greatbridge.org

Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:

1. tom's wife will see more of him
2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him
3. www.greatbridge.org lives on as gborg.postgresql.org

Two things that won't change much:

1. Tom's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
2. Bruce's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs

Don't count us out yet. I belive I will find a job continuing to work
on PostgreSQL full-time and hope the others can do the same.

Wasn't counting any of you out in the above *scratch head*

Sorry, it was only a saying. I thank you for the kind words.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026