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> Rethink is no longer commercially maintained. Just wondering, seeing as am not a Postgress user - is Postgress commercially maintained? Or is it pure open s

> Rethink is no longer commercially maintained. Just wondering, seeing as am not a Postgress user - is Postgress commercially maintained? Or is it pure open source (like I believe RethinkDB is currently)?

detaro 9y ago
Postgres is Open Source, but multiple companies sell support, employ devs and/or provide distributions of it.
sbuttgereit 9y ago
There is no single company behind PostgreSQL, there's a foundation which manages development, but there are a number of well established businesses offering commercial grade support. Some of these companies employ some of the major contributors to PostgreSQL.
- rwmj 9y ago
  Wasn't there in fact an agreement amongst the PostgreSQL contributors that they'd never all go and work for the same company?
  - sbuttgereit 9y ago
    I'm not sure (others here, naturally, may be in the know). Having said that, there do seem to be some larger concentrations of them in a few companies. I don't keep up too much with that either, but it seems like EnterpriseDB was in this camp (and logically so). I do think there are enough companies now that develop PostgreSQL based products (EnterpriseDB, Citus Data, Greenplum, etc) along with the larger PostgreSQL consultancies which would probably raise their hand if they thought one player or another was becoming dominant in some way hostile to the others. All of this is outside observer speculation, but it's the way I read the tea leaves.
    - anarazel 9y ago
      >> Wasn't there in fact an agreement amongst the PostgreSQL contributors that they'd never all go and work for the same company? At least some of us have that understanding - and looking at where at least the committers work it's fairly well distributed. > Having said that, there do seem to be some larger concentrations of them in a few companies. I don't keep up too much with that either, but it seems like EnterpriseDB was in this camp (and logically so). There is some concentration, but if you look at the list of committers (smaller number, I don't have to look up affiliations), they're fairly well distributed across the the larger players (alphabetically 2ndQuadrant, Crunchy Data, EnterpriseDB) and various other orgs with some.
- anarazel 9y ago
  > there's a foundation which manages development, There's not really a foundation that manages development - there's one that holds the trademark etc. but that's largely the extent of its activities and there are some geographical associations. The development is just managed by the community - there's a number of committers that technical authority to make decisions, there's the "core team" that resolves conflicts should they otherwise not be resolvable, release team, infrastructure team, ... but these are just people working together. > ..., but there are a number of well established businesses offering commercial grade support. Some of these companies employ some of the major contributors to PostgreSQL. Indeed, most of the active PG devs work for one of them.
anentropic 9y ago
The thing is, Postgres has grown to where it is without being commercially maintained. So the open-source ecosystem is proven for Postgres. Whereas RethinkDB was primarily developed by one company, then open-sourced. I hope that the RethinkDB project is successful, but it's reasonable to suggest that the future of Postgres is 'safer' at the current time.

detaro 9y ago

Postgres is Open Source, but multiple companies sell support, employ devs and/or provide distributions of it.

sbuttgereit 9y ago

There is no single company behind PostgreSQL, there's a foundation which manages development, but there are a number of well established businesses offering commercial grade support. Some of these companies employ some of the major contributors to PostgreSQL.

rwmj 9y ago
Wasn't there in fact an agreement amongst the PostgreSQL contributors that they'd never all go and work for the same company?
- sbuttgereit 9y ago
  I'm not sure (others here, naturally, may be in the know). Having said that, there do seem to be some larger concentrations of them in a few companies. I don't keep up too much with that either, but it seems like EnterpriseDB was in this camp (and logically so). I do think there are enough companies now that develop PostgreSQL based products (EnterpriseDB, Citus Data, Greenplum, etc) along with the larger PostgreSQL consultancies which would probably raise their hand if they thought one player or another was becoming dominant in some way hostile to the others. All of this is outside observer speculation, but it's the way I read the tea leaves.
  - anarazel 9y ago
    >> Wasn't there in fact an agreement amongst the PostgreSQL contributors that they'd never all go and work for the same company? At least some of us have that understanding - and looking at where at least the committers work it's fairly well distributed. > Having said that, there do seem to be some larger concentrations of them in a few companies. I don't keep up too much with that either, but it seems like EnterpriseDB was in this camp (and logically so). There is some concentration, but if you look at the list of committers (smaller number, I don't have to look up affiliations), they're fairly well distributed across the the larger players (alphabetically 2ndQuadrant, Crunchy Data, EnterpriseDB) and various other orgs with some.
anarazel 9y ago
> there's a foundation which manages development, There's not really a foundation that manages development - there's one that holds the trademark etc. but that's largely the extent of its activities and there are some geographical associations. The development is just managed by the community - there's a number of committers that technical authority to make decisions, there's the "core team" that resolves conflicts should they otherwise not be resolvable, release team, infrastructure team, ... but these are just people working together. > ..., but there are a number of well established businesses offering commercial grade support. Some of these companies employ some of the major contributors to PostgreSQL. Indeed, most of the active PG devs work for one of them.

anentropic 9y ago

The thing is, Postgres has grown to where it is without being commercially maintained. So the open-source ecosystem is proven for Postgres. Whereas RethinkDB was primarily developed by one company, then open-sourced. I hope that the RethinkDB project is successful, but it's reasonable to suggest that the future of Postgres is 'safer' at the current time.