Jsonb is a pretty recent addition to postgres, when compared with the MongoDB timeline. And even today postgres still doesn't have the replication/failover story that made MongoDB pretty compelling. I know, it's coming, whatever, but the point is that there was a time where if you wanted a json store that could stay alive through network issues, MongoDB was one of the only choices available, and postgres simply didn't have what was needed.
Did mongodb truly allow anyone to really horizontally scale? Most places that need massive horizontal scaling using something like mysql as far as I know.
The secret ingredient in the horizontal scaling sauce is giving up inter node ACID transactions.
Nothing prevents you from making the same tradeoff with mysql or postgresql.
It was unfathomable to us why people would choose a system that barely does the thing itβs supposed to do (store data), has a big kernel lock, throws away errors at random, implements single node features that stop working when you shard, has a barely working sharding system despite it being one of the core features of the product, provides essentially no correctness guarantees, and exposes a hodge-podge of interfaces that have no discernible consistency or unity of vision.
I mean... that's unfathomable to me too. He explains it later, that " MongoDB turned regular developers into heroes when people needed it"
I have a hard time understanding why devs choose / chose MongoDB. Postgres with JSON columns gets you so far, why would you go with MongoDB, given the issues it's had?