Sybase releases 'first free production database for Linux' (ZDNet UK)

Posted Sep 14, 2004 19:49 UTC (Tue) by zenaan (guest, #3778) [Link]

So it appears you are simply uninformed.

Given that, it is frustrating that you don't bother to do the research yourself. Just throw some bombastic comments out there and let the "Free Software Supporters" research and refute you if they can, right. That is worthy of little more than slashdot. You might find a warmer reception over there...

Short of having time to do more (of your) research, I suggest you go read up on the following:
- OpenMFG (commercial ERP, support, a competitor company in the works)
- Production PostgreSQL deployments in the TB (Terabytes/Tibibytes),
hundreds of millions of records
-- data warehousing
-- legal calendaring
-- human resources
-- placement
-- much more
- SQL-Ledger
- GnuCash
- Freemoney
- Xiwa
- GNU Enterprise

Granted these are not as widely known as SAP (yet), they are clearly evidence that people were looking at ERP/Accounting on OSS long before the recent "converts" came to the scene, and in some cases there are production deployments of these systems. This (obviously, as it shouldn't be necessary to point out the empirically observed behaviour of free software) will accelerate over time.

Feature-wise, PostgreSQL is now starting to push Sybase off the market (point in time recovery, on line backups, clustering) - as in, be a viable "full replacement". It apparently used to be 5th, just after Sybase, but has recently started displacing Sybase more consistently, for new deployments. There is no surprise at all that Sybase is acting as they are. You don't gut part of your market unless you've already lost it.

You might be a fan-boy, but don't appear to be a great friend, of Free Software. If you want to be held in esteem as part of the community, you'll need to raise your bar.

Posted Sep 16, 2004 18:51 UTC (Thu) by nedlilly (guest, #24769) [Link]

As the CEO of a company who's built an entire ERP application on PostgreSQL, I think I can safely say it's up to the task of managing "systems in a business which relate to financial or other crucial operational aspects of the business."

OpenMFG (www.openmfg.com) includes the following modules: Inventory Management | Part Definition and Costing | Work Order Management | Master Scheduling and MRP | Capacity Planning | Purchase Order Management | Sales Order Management | Shipping and Receiving | Sales Analysis | Accounts Payable | Accounts Receivable | General Ledger.

All of the business logic occurs in pl/pgsql, PostgreSQL's powerful procedural language.

We have never, in over three years of continuous operations at customer sites, had an issue with a PostgreSQL server.

Regards,
Ned Lilly