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Brad Ediger

"Advanced Rails"

postgresql.org/docs/ has
lots of great information on performance tuning.
One disadvantage of using PostgreSQL is that it has a smaller community around it.
There are more developers, especially in the Rails world, working with MySQL.
There are more tested solutions built around MySQL than PostgreSQL. The company
behind MySQL, MySQL AB, provides commercial support for its product.
There is no such centralized support structure for Postgres, as there is no single company
behind PostgreSQL; however, there are several companies that specialize in
Postgres consulting and provide support contracts.
* Technically pronounced ???post-gres-Q-L,??? and usually just called ???Postgres.??? This is a contender for the least
intuitive name in computing today. It has its roots in PostgreSQL??™s long-ago predecessor, Postgres, which
did not support SQL.
??  For a detailed look at how Postgres handles concurrency, including a summary of the potential problems and
how Postgres handles them, see the documentation at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/interactive/
transaction-iso.html.
98 | Chapter 4: Database
MySQL
The MySQL DBMS is controversial. Some hold it to be a toy, while others consider it
to be a good foundation for web applications. Nevertheless, MySQL is the dominant
DBMS in use for Rails web applications today, and it has improved greatly between
versions 3 and 5.
Part of the Rails scalability mantra is ???shared nothing???: each application server
should be able to stand on its own.


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