9. Illustra: The First Fork
● Stonebraker and a team from UC Berkeley
forked POSTGRES in 1992
● added SQL support
● added new object-relational features
● Started a new company called Miró
● Miró became Montage
● Montage became Illustra
10. Informix Swallows Illustra
● 1997: Informix buys Illustra
● Illustra features added to Informix OnLine
● and DataBlades ran Illustra
● 2000: Informix Universal Server 9
● 2001: IBM Eats Informix
11. PostgreSQL: The Second Fork
● 1995: a rag-tag band of POSTGRES users and
students decided to save the DBMS by taking it
off-campus.
● It became: Postgres95
● 1996: they put it on a public CVS server
● ported it to SQL
● It became: PostgreSQL
● you know the rest from here ...
12. Postgres Begat Many More Forks
● Because of the ● Because our code is
license clean and easy to
● Because there's a modify
history of forks ● Because Postgres is
modular and easy to
break up or add to
● Because the
community is OK with
forks and variants
13. Why Change PostgreSQL?
● To experiment with new DB technology
● To commercialize it
● To bundle it with useful tools
● To specialize it for specific tasks
● To add features the community doesn't want
● or that aren't ready for OSS yet
● Because you can!
15. Forks Are Good
● Open source means freedom to fork
● If nobody forks a project, then it's not
widely used or actively developed.
● Most forks and their owners
contribute to core PostgreSQL
● money, code, ideas
● Some forks develop code to be
integrated into main Postgres
● best way to try out really challenging
ideas
16. 4 Types of Postgres Variants
● Forks: incompatible or proprietary major
changes to the core code.
● Patches: compatible, open source major
changes to the core code.
● Add-Ons: major middleware or plugins which
greatly enhance or change Postgres's
functionality
● Redistributions: repackaging Postgres under a
different name and/or license
18. Great Bridge PostgreSQL
● What: PostgreSQL plus some advance patches
and support.
● Type: Redistribution
● Licensing: BSD
● Versions: Forked from 7.0, merged to 7.1
● R.I.P.: Great Bridge LLC died in 2001
● Contributed: lots of code in 1999-2001
● most of Core worked for Great Bridge
19. Red Hat Database
● What: PostgreSQL redistribution with
management tools by Red Hat Inc.
● Type: Re-distribution
● Licensing: BSD & GPL
● Versions: 7.2 to 7.3
● R.I.P.: Abandoned by Red Hat in 2003
● Contributed: Tom Lane's salary
● plus visual query analyzer to pgAdmin
20. NuSphere UltraSQL
● What: Native Windows Port of PostgreSQL
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Versions: 7.2 and 7.3
● R.I.P.: Lost relevance with release of
PostgreSQL 8.0
● still technically available
● Contributed: code to PostgreSQL 8.0
21. PowerGres & PowerGres Plus
● What: Native Windows Port of PostgreSQL by
SRA Inc., with optional custom storage
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Versions: 7.3, maybe 7.4
● R.I.P.: Lost relevance with release of
PostgreSQL 8.0, HA version still around
● Contributed: code to PostgreSQL 8.0
22. Pervasive Postgres
● What: Regular PostgreSQL with support.
● Type: Re-distribution
● Licensing: BSD
● Versions: 8.0
● R.I.P.: Pervasive dropped Postgres in 2006
● Contributed: money to the community, mainly
for events
23. Bizgres
● What: PostgreSQL plus BI and large database
features.
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: BSD
● Versions: 8.1, 8.2
● R.I.P.: Project died out in 2008
● Greenplum stopped merging code
● Contributed: code, money (Greenplum's)
25. Mammoth PostgreSQL
● What: PostgreSQL with Mammoth Replicator
● Owner: CommandPrompt Inc.
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: open source
● Compatibility: High, merges with main code
● Status: current production & development
● Contributes: money & code
● Used to be a proprietary fork
26. Postgres Plus
● What: PostgreSQL with open source add-ons
● Owner: EnterpriseDB
● Type: Redistribution
● Licensing: open source (varies)
● Compatibility: High, merges with main code
● Status: current production & development
● Contributes: money & code
27. Postgres Plus Advanced Server
● What: PostgreSQL with Oracle Compatibility
and proprietary tools
● Owner: EnterpriseDB
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Compatibility: High, merges with main code
● Status: current production & development
● Contributes: money & code
● Formerly EnterpriseDB Advanced Server
28. Fujitsu Supported PostgreSQL
● What: PostgreSQL with custom storage engine
● Owner: Fujitsu Australia
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Compatibility: High with 8.2
● Status: current production
● Contributes: money, occasionally
29. PostgreSQL for Solaris
● What: PostgreSQL packaged for Solaris with
tools and support
● Owner: Sun Microsystems
● Type: Redistribution
● Licensing: open source (varies)
● Compatibility: High, 8.3
● Status: current production
● Contributes: code
● Likely to be terminated when Oracle deal completes
31. PostGIS
● What: PostgreSQL plus Geographic support
● #1 open source geo database
● Type: Add-On
● Licensing: BSD & GPL
● Compatibility: High, 8.4
● Status: current production & development
● Contributes: code, users
● Used to be a package under GPL, now an add-on
32. Fork: Truviso
● 2000: TelegraphCQ Project started at UC
Berkeley
● “Continuous Query” processing for PostgreSQL
● 2006: UCB Profs. launch startup Amalgamated
Insight
● commercialize TelegraphCQ
● re-merged with current PostgreSQL code
● 2008: Amalgamated Insight renamed Truviso
● first commercial releases
33. Truviso
● What: PostgreSQL plus Streaming Database
● good for high-volume data streams where you don't
care about old data
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Compatibility: High
● Version: Forked from 7.1, merged to 8.4
● Status: current production & development
● Contributes: money & code
34. SEPostgres
● What: PostgreSQL integrated with SELinux
label-based access control
● Type: Patch
● Owner: SEPostgres project / NEC
● Licensing: BSD
● Compatibility: High, 8.4
● Status: production, working on merge with core
● Contributes: code
36. Postgres-R
● What: PostgreSQL with Group Communication
support for clustering.
● Owner: Postgres-R project
● Type: Patch
● Licensing: open source (BSD)
● Compatibility: High, merges
● Status: alpha, current development
● Contributes: code
37. pgCluster (and CyberCluster)
● What: PostgreSQL with Statement Replication
and controller support for clustering.
● Owner: pgCluster project, Cybertech.AT
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: open source (BSD)
● Compatibility: High, 8.0
● Status: beta, development halted
● Contributes: not anymore
38. pgCluster-II
● What: PostgreSQL with shared memory &
storage support for clustering ala RAC
● Owner: pgCluster project, NTT
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: open source (BSD)
● Compatibility: High, 8.3
● Status: alpha
● Contributes: code
39. PostgresForest
● What: PostgreSQL with middleware-based
statement replication clustering
● Owner: NTT (I think)
● Type: Add-On
● Licensing: open source
● Compatibility: Not sure
● Status: beta, development halted
● Contributes: code
40. pgPool-II
● What: statement-replication and partitioning
middleware for PostgreSQL
● Owner: pgPool project, SRA
● Type: Add-On
● Licensing: open source
● Compatibility: High, 8.4
● Status: beta, active development
● Contributes: code, money (SRA)
41. Continuent
● What: statement-replication, mangagement and
partitioning middleware for PostgreSQL
● Owner: Continuent corporation
● Type: Add-On
● Licensing: part open source, part proprietary
● Compatibility: High, 8.4
● Status: old version production, Tungsten RSN
● Contributes: code, money
42. GridSQL
● What: statement-replication, mangagement and
partitioning middleware for PostgreSQL
● Owner: EnterpriseDB
● Type: Add-On
● Licensing: GPL
● Compatibility: High, 8.4
● Status: production, active development
● Contributes: code, money
● Used to be “ExtenDB”, integrated into Postgres Plus
44. Netezza
● What: Some PostgreSQL code (30-50%) plus
proprietary code and hardware package
● Type: Fork
● Owner: Netezza Co.
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Compatibility: Low
● Forked from 7.2, no longer compatible
● Status: current production
● Contributes: nothing
45. Greenplum
● What: Mostly PostgreSQL with proprietary MPP
plus BI and VLDB tools
● great for huge data mining
● Owner: Greenplum
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Compatibility: Medium, 8.2
● Status: production, active development
● Contributes: code, money
● used to be “Bizgres MPP”
46. Vertica
● What: Proprietary code with a few PostgreSQL
libraries for multi-TB column store database
● great for OLAP
● Owner: Vertica Co.
● Type: Fork (sort of)
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Compatibility: Low
● Status: production, active development
● Stonebraker project (no contributions)
47. Paraccel
● What: Part-Postgres, part-proprietary in-
memory clustered pseudo-column store.
● made for “online data analysis”
● Owner: Paraccel Co.
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Compatibility: Medium
● Status: production, active development
● Contributions: none to date
48. AsterDB
● What: Patches and proprietary middleware for
map/reduce queries on many Postgres servers.
● Owner: Aster Data Co.
● including former Continuent developer
● Type: Patch, Add-On
● Licensing: Proprietary
● Compatibility: High, 8.4
● Status: production, active development
● Contributions: code, money
49. Everest
● What: PostgreSQL with proprietary storage,
MPP and column store
● scales to 10's of petabytes
● Owner: Yahoo!
● Type: Fork
● Licensing: Not available to public
● Compatibility: N/A
● Status: production
● Contributions: threw a nice party for us
50. HadoopDB
● What: Middleware for running map/reduce
queries over many Postgres instances.
● brand-new
● Owner: Yale University
● Type: Add-On
● Licensing: unclear
● Compatibility: High, 8.4
● Status: alpha, active development
● Contributions: none yet
52. So, what are you waiting for?
Go make your own fork!
53. Contact
● Josh Berkus: josh@pgexperts.com
● blog: it.toolbox.com/blogs/database-soup
● www.pgexperts.com/presentations.html
● PostgreSQL: www.postgresql.org
● PostgreSQL Experts Inc.:
www.pgexperts.com
This talk is copyright 2009 Josh Berkus, and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
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