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Re: open source PostgreSQL not supportable? (Was: Challenging SQL Query Problem. Can you solve it?)

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_psoug.org>
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 13:23:38 -0800
Message-ID: <1136669014.721414@jetspin.drizzle.com>


paul c wrote:

> Buffer overlow exploits and so forth make me wonder if any legislator
> really knows what they're talking about

Does't really matter does it. The law is the law and talking about such matters is just an attempt to change the subject. Truth is you can't buffer overflow your way past a well written audit trail no matter how much you might wish to do so.

> although i'm not up to it, i suspect that undetected tampering with the
> data of any of the major db products is quite feasible. if that's so,
> then i'm guessing that the proponents of proprietary software as far as
> the topic is concerned are relying on the size of the vendors of those
> dbms/s (eg. their financial substantialness) for legal recourse by a
> customer who's been taken to task by the Feds, which is a remedy that
> seems apart from the intent of Oxley etc laws.
>
> p

I think you are doing a whole lot of guessing and I think you are to some extent correct but to the greatest extent not. Absolutely we are relying on Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft to do it right to protect themselves. But beyond that we are also relying on the fact that they have passed extensive testing (both corporate and government) and that they have sufficient capital to invest in doing the job correctly.

Some day open-source databases may be competitive with those built by the big three just as Linux is now competitive in the area of operating systems. But that day, for databases, is not today nor anytime within the next two to three years.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
http://www.psoug.org
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace x with u to respond)
Received on Sat Jan 07 2006 - 15:23:38 CST

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