Now that GreatBridge is gone. (I'm pretty sad about that, they looked like they
were working on some cool stuff.)

Has this changed, in any way, the development path of PostgreSQL?

Thu, 20 Sep 2001 08:58:37 -0400
mlw <markw@mohawksoft.com>
PostgreSQL funding/organization
On Thursday 20 September 2001 08:58 am, mlw wrote:
> Now that GreatBridge is gone. (I'm pretty sad about that, they looked like
> they were working on some cool stuff.)

> Has this changed, in any way, the development path of PostgreSQL?

Just my personal opinion:

While PostgreSQL was developed prior to _any_ substantial funding through the 
efforts of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group on volunteer basis, the 
fact that Bruce, Tom, and Jan will have to make a living elsewhere might very 
well impact the speed of development.  

Although, Tom was doing an incredible amount of bugfixing long before Great 
Bridge.  Bruce was doing the same things before Great Bridge as he did while 
employed at GB.  Jan added PL/Tcl and PL/pgsql (and foreign keys, and many 
other things) long before Great Bridge was on the map at all.  

And the other three members of the core group have never been employed by 
Great Bridge.  And look at Vadim's, Thomas', and Marc's work.... I don't 
think the lackof GB funding will impact the direction of development, even if 
it does impact the speed of development.

And RedHat is still in the mix, as is PostgreSQL, Inc, and others.  Great 
Bridge wasn't the only game in town for PostgreSQL development.

Just one additional comment: PostgreSQL, being open source, isn't going to go 
away because one company went away.  If Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, or other 
proprietary database vendors 'went away' the likelihood of their RDBMS 
products being orphaned is high -- but PostgreSQL cannot be orphaned in that 
sense due to its open source nature.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

Thu, 20 Sep 2001 10:39:35 -0400
Lamar Owen <lamar.owen@wgcr.org>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization
> ... but PostgreSQL cannot be orphaned in that
> sense due to its open source nature.

I'll second that. It isn't just "the open source nature" of PostgreSQL
which will keep it viable, it is the active developer and user community
which has grown up around it which makes it unlikely that it will become
irrelevant. Other db efforts may try to get the open source gloss with
licensing and tarballs, but PostgreSQL actually has the process and
*people* which makes it successful.

                         - Thomas

Thu, 20 Sep 2001 15:04:13 +0000
Thomas Lockhart <lockhart@fourpalms.org>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization
On Thursday 20 September 2001 11:04 am, Thomas Lockhart wrote:
> > ... but PostgreSQL cannot be orphaned in that
> > sense due to its open source nature.

> I'll second that. It isn't just "the open source nature" of PostgreSQL
> which will keep it viable, it is the active developer and user community

Sorry.  My semantics are 'open source status'!='open source nature' -- having 
an open source nature includes the developer community's openness.  Many 
projects have open source status -- few have an open source nature.  I should 
have clarified what I meant.

See my letter to Linux Weekly News from a few weeks ago to find out what I 
see in 'open source nature.'
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

Thu, 20 Sep 2001 12:11:04 -0400
Lamar Owen <lamar.owen@wgcr.org>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization
On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Lamar Owen wrote:

> On Thursday 20 September 2001 08:58 am, mlw wrote:
> > Now that GreatBridge is gone. (I'm pretty sad about that, they looked like
> > they were working on some cool stuff.)
>
> > Has this changed, in any way, the development path of PostgreSQL?
>
> Just my personal opinion:
>
> While PostgreSQL was developed prior to _any_ substantial funding through the
> efforts of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group on volunteer basis, the
> fact that Bruce, Tom, and Jan will have to make a living elsewhere might very
> well impact the speed of development.
>
> Although, Tom was doing an incredible amount of bugfixing long before Great
> Bridge.  Bruce was doing the same things before Great Bridge as he did while
> employed at GB.  Jan added PL/Tcl and PL/pgsql (and foreign keys, and many
> other things) long before Great Bridge was on the map at all.

And, in fact, since GB came on the map, Jan has been so busy getting
across from Germany that he hasn't had much time to work on PgSQL, which
means that GB slowed down development to an extent ... balanced off with
Tom's increased development, but that is neither here nor there ...

Three things that GB provided for their $25million:

1. Tom's ability to focus on programming more
2. Bruce's ability to travel and evangelize(sp?) more
3. www.greatbridge.org

Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:

1. tom's wife will see more of him
2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him
3. www.greatbridge.org lives on as gborg.postgresql.org

Two things that won't change much:

1. Tom's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
2. Bruce's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs

IMHO ...



Thu, 20 Sep 2001 12:47:08 -0400 (EDT)
"Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@hub.org>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization
On Thursday 20 September 2001 12:47 pm, Marc G. Fournier wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Sep 2001, Lamar Owen wrote:
> > On Thursday 20 September 2001 08:58 am, mlw wrote:
> > > Has this changed, in any way, the development path of PostgreSQL?
> > Just my personal opinion:

> > long before Great Bridge was on the map at
> > all.

> Three things that GB provided for their $25million:
...
> Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:
...
> Two things that won't change much:
...

Good summary, Marc.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11

Thu, 20 Sep 2001 13:23:26 -0400
Lamar Owen <lamar.owen@wgcr.org>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization
On Thu, Sep 20, 2001 at 12:47:08PM -0400, Marc G. Fournier wrote:
> 
> Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:
> 
> 1. tom's wife will see more of him
> 2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him

 It seems that GB finish is their women conspiracy :-)

		Karel

-- 
 Karel Zak  <zakkr@zf.jcu.cz>
 http://home.zf.jcu.cz/~zakkr/
 
 C, PostgreSQL, PHP, WWW, http://docs.linux.cz, http://mape.jcu.cz

Fri, 21 Sep 2001 10:00:30 +0200
Karel Zak <zakkr@zf.jcu.cz>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization
> Three things that GB provided for their $25million:
> 
> 1. Tom's ability to focus on programming more
> 2. Bruce's ability to travel and evangelize(sp?) more
> 3. www.greatbridge.org
> 
> Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:
> 
> 1. tom's wife will see more of him
> 2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him
> 3. www.greatbridge.org lives on as gborg.postgresql.org
> 
> Two things that won't change much:
> 
> 1. Tom's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
> 2. Bruce's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs

Don't count us out yet.  I belive I will find a job continuing to work
on PostgreSQL full-time and hope the others can do the same.

As for my wife, she actually saw more of me while I was at GB because
before I had a full-time job _and_ worked on PostgreSQL several hours a
day.  With GB, I only worked on PostgreSQL, which freed up lots of time.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

Sat, 22 Sep 2001 00:56:45 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization
On Sat, 22 Sep 2001, Bruce Momjian wrote:

> > Three things that GB provided for their $25million:
> >
> > 1. Tom's ability to focus on programming more
> > 2. Bruce's ability to travel and evangelize(sp?) more
> > 3. www.greatbridge.org
> >
> > Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:
> >
> > 1. tom's wife will see more of him
> > 2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him
> > 3. www.greatbridge.org lives on as gborg.postgresql.org
> >
> > Two things that won't change much:
> >
> > 1. Tom's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
> > 2. Bruce's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
>
> Don't count us out yet.  I belive I will find a job continuing to work
> on PostgreSQL full-time and hope the others can do the same.

Wasn't counting any of you out in the above *scratch head*



Sat, 22 Sep 2001 19:48:36 -0400 (EDT)
"Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@hub.org>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization
> On Sat, 22 Sep 2001, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> 
> > > Three things that GB provided for their $25million:
> > >
> > > 1. Tom's ability to focus on programming more
> > > 2. Bruce's ability to travel and evangelize(sp?) more
> > > 3. www.greatbridge.org
> > >
> > > Three things that are going to change now that GB is gone:
> > >
> > > 1. tom's wife will see more of him
> > > 2. bruce's wife and kids will see more of him
> > > 3. www.greatbridge.org lives on as gborg.postgresql.org
> > >
> > > Two things that won't change much:
> > >
> > > 1. Tom's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
> > > 2. Bruce's visibility in the groups and in the cvs commit logs
> >
> > Don't count us out yet.  I belive I will find a job continuing to work
> > on PostgreSQL full-time and hope the others can do the same.
> 
> Wasn't counting any of you out in the above *scratch head*

Sorry, it was only a saying.  I thank you for the kind words.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

Sat, 22 Sep 2001 19:50:14 -0400 (EDT)
Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Re: PostgreSQL funding/organization