PotsgreSQL question (differences for 7.4 ,8.1 and 8.2)

[Bill Moran]

In response to Harald Schmalzbauer <h.schmalzbauer at omnisec.de>:

> Hello,
> 
> I'm new to PostgreSQL and see that there are 3 versions in the Ports and 
> bsd.mk.ports defaults to 7.4 to resolve pgsql dependencies.
> I yahood/msnd/googled a lot but couldn't find a comprehensive comparison 
> regarding features/performance. There are severaly MySQL comparisions but 
> that aren't of interest any more since that's what I've been using before.
> 
> So please can one explain me in short words what the main featrue difference 
> is between 7.4, 8.1, 8.2? (I found out that 7.4 and 8.2 are incompatible 
> regarding php5-pgsql conjunction)

7.4 is good.  8.1 is better.  8.2 is best.

Feature changes are minimal.  8.2 has significant performance improvements
over previous version.

> And what are the main performace differences (for a very small site) between 
> 7.4, 8.1 and 8.2?
> If it's not obvious (with the above answered), why are there 3 stable 
> branches?

Legacy support.  Some applications only work on older versions.  Additionally,
in an enterprise environment, people don't upgrade just every time a
new version comes out (don't tell Microsoft, that'd defeat their entire
business model).  We're still evaluating 8.2, and we'll be using 8.1
until we've don't a LOT of testing to ensure there are no regressions
with 8.2.

You should read Eric Raymond's _The_Art_of_Unix_Programming_.  Especially
the section about multiple development branches.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.