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Re:Which database should my startup use? by dfranke on Thursday August 09, 2007 @11:48PM (#41140)
Start with PostgreSQL. Switch to Oracle if you need to and can afford it.
Re:Which database should my startup use? by benhoyt on Friday August 10, 2007 @12:23AM (#41162)
Just wondering what advantages Oracle has over Postgres? (I'm skeptical, but I honestly don't know.)

We chose Postgres over MySQL by a very fine margin, but we're pleased we did. Seems to have fewer "try to make your life easier but end up doing the opposite" quirks.

Re:Which database should my startup use? by dfranke on Friday August 10, 2007 @12:35AM (#41165)
The optimizer is smarter and it's better at concurrency control. You'll get better performance out of Oracle when you have very-long-running transactions or lots of transactions at once operating on the same tables. The former isn't a concern for most web applications, but the latter might be.

The above is received wisdom from academics, though, so it may be dated. PostgreSQL has improved a lot in recent years.

Re:Which database should my startup use? by henning on Friday August 10, 2007 @01:04AM (#41173)
And if you want nearly everything Oracle has to offer at a fraction of the price, consider EnterpriseDB.