An introduction to PostgreSQL

If you tracked the development of PostgreSQL in the '90s, you may remember it as a slow, resource hungry open source database later surpassed in popularity by the faster and easier to use MySQL. If that's the case, you might be surprised by PostgreSQL 16. While the name is the same, along with the similar syntax of familiar tools such as psql or pg_dump, the internal architecture has been vastly reworked. At the end of the day, it is basically a completely different database.

PostgreSQL is a mature, polished product that has been in development for almost 40 years. At the same time, it has developed at a rapid pace and offers many new, interesting features. In fact, it is practically impossible to describe all of these features in a single article, or even cover the most interesting features to the extent they deserve. In this article, I cover the most useful features for readers who are not currently using PostgreSQL.

The Elephant in the Room

In the past, an enterprise database management system (DBMS) was almost synonymous with Oracle, with IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server (and at some point Sybase ASE and others) as competitors. While these DBMSs are still in use (mainly by large organizations who are by nature inert), there has been a move to migrate from proprietary to open source technologies. This emerging trend led Oracle to acquire MySQL from Sun Microsystems in 2010 (who acquired it from MySQL AB in 2008), which resulted in the MariaDB fork. This trend continues today, but this time PostgreSQL is the clear leader. PostgreSQL's stability, modern features, flexibility, and extensibility make it a universal DBMS that not only fits various use cases, but excels at them.

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