The world’s most advanced open source database?! Say whaaat?
I’am pretty much sure, that everyone of us, who worked with Postgres for years, has a long list of features that could address such question. For me, however, this list has an obvious number one: ACID transactions support in a way it is implemented in PostgreSQL.
A database server should be build around a transaction machine simply because a database server is, to certain degree, a transactional machine. Keeping transactions outside, as an external API, proved itself being painful. Now, when DBMS creators suddenly realize that a naïve
approach “we are not a bank, we do not need transactions” doesn’t work and try adding pure men’s transaction support at some point on the fly – that’s even worse.
PostgreSQL is famous for it’s robust backup/recovery, easy replication, powerful SQL and tremendous extensibility. As for me, success of those features in many ways based on transaction implementation.
That’s just me though, so what do YOU think makes PostgreSQL the world’s most advanced open source database?
