<`Sauron> a few months or more ago... what was the single biggest thing mysql had going for themselves... ? <`Sauron> speed <`Sauron> in the opensource RDBMs arena, there was only 2 real contenders... mysql, and postgres <`Sauron> mysql had the speed, but lacked features <`Sauron> pgsql had the features, but lacked the speed <`Sauron> when most dynamic content sites started... the main thing they looked for, was speed... many people didn't care much about features (transactions, triggers, all that fun stuff) <`Sauron> well.. there's 2 things going on right now, that might cause the fall of mysql, and the rise of postgres... <`Sauron> for one thing, postgres is getting to the point where their rewrite of the engine is making the speed difference less... mysql is slowly losing the headway it had on mysql speed-wise <`Sauron> erm... it had on pgsql speed-wise :) <`Sauron> now that postgres is gaining on mysql speed-wise, people are starting to compare them with regards to other criteria... - features <`Sauron> so yeah... also, sites are starting to get into more elaborate things... beyond just storing session data and user data in databases... and enter stage left, is postgres... which almost has the same speed as mysql... but has a LOT more features that people find useful (neccesary?) <`Sauron> as for the implementation stuff... <`Sauron> that's the second thing that might be the demise of mysql... the fact that they use a whole lot of third-party code... <`Sauron> it pollutes the source tree, and makes it far more difficult to maintain <`Sauron> postgres wrote everything from scratch on their own... mysql is slowly turning into a patchwork of third-party programs/libraries <`Sauron> .. which becomes _really_ hard to maintain...