[Sussex] MYSQL vs Postgresql

[Steve Dobson]

Geoff

On Thu, Jul 22, 2004 at 07:31:49PM +0100, Geoffrey Teale wrote:
> I think business often needs a big incentive to move, and for companies
> the size of our clients money isn't _that_ much of a motivator - skilled
> staff cost a lot more than software across the organisation.  IT that
> helps maximise those peoples output is what matters, not the upfront
> cost.  What organisations are slowly learning however is that open
> source has serious benefits for staff productivity.  For big companies
> the idea that they can share development work with their competitors is
> an anathema, but it's where the real value lies.  Often what they need
> to make that leap is a third-party vendor to start the ball rolling and
> form a community.

Maybe the trick here is to convince them that Operating Systems'
development is not part of their business.  In your case the companies
are pharma...  Do these companies need OS APIs that are unique to their
business area?  Somehow I doubt it.  There are very few areas where OS
APIs are part of a companies core business.  Therefore, is helping the
development of Linux any different (in terms of assistance to their
competitors) than buying the same proprietary OS their competitors do? 
I don't think so.

What should matter is the application that runs on the OS -- that is
what should be giving them their competitive edge.  Is this any different
than using Apache or IIS?  What matters is the contents of the pages, not
that app used to serve them up.

Steve