MySQL Bashing - very very cheap hosting

[Jonathan Hartley]

People seem to confuse it for a relational database.

I've used the major proprietary databases for Geographic Information System work (ie. maps), and I was about to install MySql at home to teach myself about it and see what GIS / spatial stuff could be achieved with Open Source tools. Since this list has established that maybe MySql isn't all I was expecting it to be, can I ask whether PostgreSql is any better? Are there any other projects that you guys would recommend me to check out as a GIS/spatial database server?

Jonathan Hartley
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[Martin A. Brooks]

Post by Jonathan Hartley
I've used the major proprietary databases for Geographic Information
System work (ie. maps), and I was about to install MySql at home to
teach myself about it and see what GIS / spatial stuff could be
achieved with Open Source tools. Since this list has established that
maybe MySql isn't all I was expecting it to be, can I ask whether
PostgreSql is any better? Are there any other projects that you guys
would recommend me to check out as a GIS/spatial database server?

In fairness the vast majority of people who use or will use MySQL will
most likely have no problems with it. However postgres is mature,
robust, polished and nearly feature complete database. If you can't
afford Oracle, postgres is your best bet.

Regards

[Russell Howe]

Post by Jonathan Hartley
I've used the major proprietary databases for Geographic Information System work (ie. maps), and I was about to install MySql at home to teach myself about it and see what GIS / spatial stuff could be achieved with Open Source tools. Since this list has established that maybe MySql isn't all I was expecting it to be, can I ask whether PostgreSql is any better? Are there any other projects that you guys would recommend me to check out as a GIS/spatial database server?

According to my postgres book, postgres has support for spatial
datatypes. I would assume this is so that it can be used with GRASS
(open source GIS), but I don't know.

[Richard Huxton]

Post by Jonathan Hartley

People seem to confuse it for a relational database.

I've used the major proprietary databases for Geographic Information
System work (ie. maps), and I was about to install MySql at home to
teach myself about it and see what GIS / spatial stuff could be
achieved with Open Source tools. Since this list has established that
maybe MySql isn't all I was expecting it to be, can I ask whether
PostgreSql is any better? Are there any other projects that you guys
would recommend me to check out as a GIS/spatial database server?

I don't know anything about GIS but I am familiar with PG and do know of
a PostGIS project that is active. There are also various
geographic-oriented types/operators/indexes included, but again I don't
really use them.

The background buzz on the mailing lists suggest to me that PostgreSQL
is used for GIS quite a lot.

[Richard Huxton]

Post by Jonathan Hartley

People seem to confuse it for a relational database.

I've used the major proprietary databases for Geographic Information
System work (ie. maps), and I was about to install MySql at home to
teach myself about it and see what GIS / spatial stuff could be
achieved with Open Source tools. Since this list has established that
maybe MySql isn't all I was expecting it to be, can I ask whether
PostgreSql is any better? Are there any other projects that you guys
would recommend me to check out as a GIS/spatial database server?

Just noticed an article on PostGIS on general-bits:
http://www.varlena.com/varlena/GeneralBits/

HTH