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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the current version of PostgreSQL?
A: 8.2, which was released December 5, 2006 at the Usenix LISA conference.
Q: 8.2? Does that mean it's a minor release?
A: No. Because of the long history of our project the first two decimals are
major releases. Thus 7.3, 7.4, 8.0 and 8.1 were all major releases. Minor
releases have numbers like 8.0.9. This is similar to how Linux and Apache
number their versions. If we incremented the first digit for every major
release, we'd be up to Version 15.
Q: How is PostgreSQL licensed? How much does it cost?
A: PostgreSQL is released under the BSD license. There is no fee, even for use in commercial software products. Please see http://www.postgresql.org/about/licence
Q: How many developers work on PostgreSQL?
A: About 200. As with all open source projects, some developers contribute much more than others, of course: a couple dozen developers write 90% of our new code.
Q: How many PostgreSQL users are there, worldwide?
A: Our wide distribution through the open source world and liberal licensing make that a difficult question to answer with any accuracy. A previous version, 8.0, had an estimated one million downloads within a seven months of release. However, most users get PostgreSQL with a Linux distribution, or with some of the many other products, OSS software, and hardware devices that include PostgreSQL. SDMagazine in a survey in summer 2004 estimated us as the 5th most popular SQL database system in the US for new projects, and many people have called us the 2nd most popular major database system in Japan.
Q: What company owns PostgreSQL?
A: None. We are an unincorporated association of volunteers and companies who share code under the BSD license. The PostgreSQL project involves more than a dozen companies who either support PostgreSQL contributors or directly contribute corporate projects to our repository. Our major corporate sponsors are on the sponsors page, and there are many more companies who contribute to the project in minor ways.
Q: Where can people get support for PostgreSQL?
A: There are several companies which provide paid support for PostgreSQL. Most of them are regional in nature. People should contact the nearest regional contact volunteer to be connected with one or more companies, or check our professional services list.
Q: What's the relationship between PostgreSQL Inc. and the PostgreSQL Project?
A: PostgreSQL Inc. is one of several companies which both contributes to the PostgreSQL Project and provides commercial support for PostgreSQL. They do not "own" PostgreSQL, nor is PostgreSQL Inc. responsible for PostgreSQL code development. In this way, the Project's relationship with PostgreSQL is the same as our relationship with Command Prompt, Software Research Associates, Credativ, Sun Microsystems, Fujitsu, or several other companies.
Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to MySQL?
A: This is a topic that can start several hours of discussion. As a quick summary, MySQL is the "popular, easy-to-use" database, and PostgreSQL is the "feature-rich, standards-compliant" database. Beyond that, each database user should make their own evaluation; open source software makes doing your own comparison very easy.
Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to Oracle/DB2/MS SQL Server/Informix?
A: As you may know, end-user licensing agreements make it difficult to publish benchmarks for competing commercial database systems. However, we have had many users migrate from other database systems – primarily Oracle and Informix – and they are completely satisfied with the performance of their PostgreSQL systems.
Q: Can we talk to some of these users?
A: Please contact press@postgresql.org and our press volunteers will try to arrange a contact.
Q: Does PostgreSQL Support 64-bit Computing?
A: Yes. In fact, we've supported 64-bit systems for at least 10 years, just like a lot of other Unix and POSIX software. We do not yet support 64-bit Windows, however.
Q: Are there any published benchmarks for PostgreSQL?
A: Not currently. Several members of the PostgreSQL development team are working with Open Source Development Labs and Sun Microsystems on both open source and industry benchmarks. Nothing has yet reached the stage of publication, though.
Q: How does PostgreSQL compare to Ingres? Is there a relationship between the two projects?
A: Currently, we have a shared history but no shared code with Ingres. Beyond that, we have had little contact with the new Ingres, Inc. and are unable to evaluate it.
Q: Does PostgreSQL have replication?
A: Yes, currently we have a half-dozen different replication tools, depending on the user's purpose and platform. This is limited to master-slave replication in stable production projects. Multi-master replication is mostly handled by clustering tools.
Q: When will PostgreSQL get database server clustering?
A: That depends on what kind of clustering you're seeking. pgCluster and the proprietary Bizgres MPP and ExtenDB are reportedly already useable. pgPool2 and C-JDBC are in serious development and should have releases any day now. Also, PostgreSQL is supported by filesystem-based clustering systems for failover, including ones from Red Hat, Microsoft, Veritas and Sun.
Q: When will 8.3 come out?
A: version 8.3 is planned to be a short development cycle, coming out around July 2007. It's possible that it will be delayed, of course.
Q: Why a short development cycle?
A: For two reasons: (1) we had some major features that didn't make the 8.2 release for technical reasons, and (2) we're trying to move away from doing the bulk of our intgration and testing in midsummer, when many developers are unavailable.
Q: What features will 8.3 have?
A: As always, we can't be certain what will go in and what won't; the project has strict quality standards that not all patches can make before deadline. However, there were several features which just needed a little more work to make 8.2, and those are expected to be merged in the first month of 8.3 development. These include on-disk compressed bitmap indexes, SQL:XML syntax support, a PL/pgSQL debugger, and SQL-standard updatable views.