I believe that MySql has very limited support for sub-queries and other advanced query techniques. That is simply not acceptable at a large company. The additional cost in developer time to work around database limitations costs far more at a large company than the database software itself.
I know nothing about PostgreSQL. That is probably true for a lot of DBAs. That is another reason companies don't use it. The difficulty of finding employees to work on those databases and the cost to train new employees again are more than the cost of database software. Oracle is very expensive, but it is extremely powerful and fast and you can find plenty of people that already know it and can be useful in your shop almost from their first day of work. Even assuming that a good DBA or developer would accept a job in a PostgreSQL (or other lesser-used database) shop (not particularly good for the resume), they would need a lot of time to fully understand that database.
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by: angelIIIPosted on 2002-08-14 at 04:08:29ID: 7219496
The simple answer to your question is:
you will take the db system that fits your needs.
your needs can be:
* price (of course as small as possible)
* platform (most of the time)
* existing system (most of the time)
* integration to other systems (most of the time)
* stability (is often neglected)
* support (most of the time neglected)
* inhouse knowledge (almost all the time neglected)
* functionality (neglected)
The above order is not random :-)
Now, to be honest, i don't know much of mysql, i didn't even install it. Besides of this NOBODY can know ALL the db-systems, because too much practice is required to really know a system.
And this also explains why most people use the large systems: they often have it already, so they have either the knowledge available. They don't need to migrate etc. Don't forget that if you have a DBA in Oracle, why pay another DBA for SQL Server, as that cost is higher (and continious) than paying 1 more license!
Concerning the functionality, oracle is MUCH more than only a DB server. It would be senseless to enumerate everything, but by only reading all the products from Oracle, you can see wich dimension of that solution can take.
Better? speaking performance, you need to take into account the data. Oracle can be overkill solution if you have only several MB of data.
I don't know PostgreSQL neither, but again, it's another variant of a db...
I have worked once with Interbase several years ago, had also some nice things...
I am working with SQL Server, and similar than ORACLE, you need to tune to keep the system running fine (as well the db setup, the db design and the sql queries).
CHeers