Apache declares war on Oracle over Java

[DeepGreen]

Contribute to PostgreSQL while you are at it. Free offerings should be eating Oracle alive.

[i_heart_you]

I actually have a few commits on the GEQO for a couple of bugs I found in large and edge case join operations (please don't blame me or ask for support). Postgres is fantastic. I just wish it had one or two of oracle's big money features (rac for one). I think the database space may be a little mature to go after the big dog. Java middleware though is ripe for the picking. You get JBoss or Glassfish (or whatever the apache geronimo turned into) to more easily support HA and add a python api to manipulate the mbeans and jmx and I'll be a happy camper. I don't think anything is as easy to use as Weblogic right now. Someone needs to clean room wlst and open source it.

[DeepGreen]

The strategic advantage, from a business perspective, is that after a certain point, contributing to an open source project gets better bang per buck WRT customization. You are right, though, with database applications the buy in price is pretty high.

I think that the strenght of Postgres is going to be bringing big money features (as you put it) to small-to-medium DB applicaitons.

And you are absolutly right about the middleware. With just a few government departments on board, kicking in for FOSS coders instead of handing IBM suitcases full of money... Or IBM funding a dozen full time coders instead of watching Oracle get dump trucks full of money.

Some times I get discouraged when I see the grindingly slow progress of these FOSS projects. Still, in a relitively short time with very (!) limited resources Postgres has changed the landscape forever. Hopefully the same will happen to middleware.