new to the database field

“Sleepycat employs a lot of database people with, like, 25 years of experience,” [Josh] Berkus [evangelism guy for PostgreSQL] said. “One problem MySQL has is that most database people working there are new to the database field.”

that is a laughable statement that simply demonstrates that josh has little insight into the breadth and depth of experience of the mysql development team. it includes a number of developers with long experience in the database industry and recognized experts in the database field. the jokers like me who just brought a non-database background to their jobs are not representative of the whole development team. i can understand why josh got it so wrong, though. those of us who came through the open-source community tend to be more visible in that community.

the quote comes from this eweek opinion piece by lisa vaas about how mysql may re-team with sleepycat. and this doesn’t mean that lisa is right, but the timing of her piece and this announcement from sleepycat about their latest version is pretty funny.

and if richard mason got taken out to the woodshed for what he said, it is probably because “replace” is the wrong word to use. un-factual, as one might say. and i can’t imagine it was a very unpleasant trip to the woodshed considering how well his european sales team has been doing.

like always, seeing something in the press about things you have first-hand knowledge about is a good way to remind you how wrong the press often is, and how skeptically you should treat it.