Database Guru
Ruohang Feng @Vonng / Pigsty
News, reports, surveys and best practices from the database industry — cutting through the marketing.
When Answers Become Abundant, Questions Become the New Currency
Your ability to ask questions—and your taste in what to ask—determines your position in the AI era. When answers become commodities, good questions become the new wealth. We are living in the moment …
On Trusting Open-Source Supply Chains
In serious production you can’t rely on an upstream that explicitly says “no guarantees.” When someone says “don’t count on me,” the right answer is “then I’ll run it myself.”
Don't Run Docker Postgres for Production!
Tons of users running the official docker postgres image got burned during recent minor version upgrades. A friendly reminder: think twice before containerizing production databases.
DDIA 2nd Edition, Chinese Translation
The second edition of Designing Data-Intensive Applications has released ten chapters. I translated them into Chinese and rebuilt a clean Hugo/Hextra web version for the community.
Column: Database Guru
The database world is full of hype and marketing fog. This column cuts through it with blunt commentary, case studies, and technical deep dives.
Dongchedi Just Exposed “Smart Driving.” Where’s Our Dongku-Di?
Imagine a “closed-course” shootout for domestic databases and clouds, the way Dongchedi just humiliated 30+ autonomous cars. This industry needs its own stress test.
Where Will Databases and DBAs Go in the AI Era?
Who will be revolutionized first - OLTP or OLAP? Integration vs specialization, how to choose? Where will DBAs go in the AI era? Feng's views from the HOW 2025 conference roundtable, organized and …
Stop Arguing, The AI Era Database Has Been Settled
The database for the AI era has been settled. Capital markets are making intensive moves on PostgreSQL targets, with PG having become the default database for the AI era.
Scaling Postgres to the next level at OpenAI
At PGConf.Dev 2025, Bohan Zhang from OpenAI shared a session titled Scaling Postgres to the next level at OpenAI, giving us a peek into the database usage of a top-tier unicorn.
How Many Shops Has etcd Torched?
Plenty. If you’re rolling your own Kubernetes, odds are you’ll crash because etcd ships with a 2 GB time bomb.
MySQL vs. PostgreSQL @ 2025
A 2025 reality check on where PostgreSQL stands relative to MySQL across features, performance, quality, and ecosystem.
Database Planet Collision: When PG Falls for DuckDB
If you ask me, we’re on the brink of a cosmic collision in database-land, and Postgres + DuckDB is the meteor we should all be watching.
Comparing Oracle and PostgreSQL Transaction Systems
The PG community has started punching up: Cybertec's Laurenz Albe breaks down how Oracle's transaction system stacks against PostgreSQL.
Database as Business Architecture
Databases are the core of business architecture, but what happens if we go further and let databases become the business architecture itself?
Solving the 24-Point Card Game with a Single SQL Query
A fun but devious challenge: solve the 24-point card game in SQL. Here is the PostgreSQL answer.
7 Databases in 7 Weeks (2025)
Is PostgreSQL the king of boring databases? Here are seven databases worth studying in 2025: PostgreSQL, SQLite, DuckDB, ClickHouse, FoundationDB, TigerBeetle, and CockroachDB—each deserving a week of …
Self-Hosting Supabase on PostgreSQL
Supabase is great, own your own Supabase is even better. A tutorial for self-hosting production-grade supabase on local/cloud/ VM/BMs.
Open-Source "Tyrant" Linus's Purge
The Linux community is essentially imperial — and Linus himself is the earliest and most successful technical dictator. People are used to Linus's generosity but forget this point.
Optimize Bio Cores First, CPU Cores Second
Programmers are expensive, scarce biological computing cores, the anchor point of software costs — please prioritize optimizing biological cores before optimizing CPU cores.
MongoDB Has No Future: Good Marketing Can't Save a Rotten Mango
MongoDB has a terrible track record on integrity, lackluster products and technology, gets beaten by PG in correctness, performance, and functionality, with collapsing developer reputation, declining …
MongoDB: Now Powered by PostgreSQL?
MongoDB 3.2's analytics subsystem turned out to be an embedded PostgreSQL database? A whistleblowing story from MongoDB's partner about betrayal and disillusionment.
CVE-2024-6387 SSH Vulnerability Fix
This vulnerability affects EL9, Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12. Users should promptly update OpenSSH to fix this vulnerability.
The $20 Brother PolarDB: What Should Databases Actually Cost?
Today we discuss the fair pricing of commercial databases, open-source databases, cloud databases, and domestic Chinese databases.
Can Chinese Domestic Databases Really Compete?
Friends often ask me, can Chinese domestic databases really compete? To be honest, it's a question that offends people. So let's try speaking with data - I hope the charts provided in this article can …
When Answers Become Abundant, Questions Become the New Currency
Answers are depreciating, and your ability to ask questions determines your position in the AI era. Kevin Kelly once said: “In the future, asking questions will be more valuable than answering them. When answers become commodities, good questions are …
Answers are depreciating, and your ability to ask questions determines your position in the AI era. Kevin Kelly once said: “In the future, asking questions will be more valuable than answering them. When answers become commodities, good questions are …
On Trusting Open-Source Supply Chains
Yesterday’s post “PG ‘Export Controls’ and Supply-Chain Trust” drew a comment from someone claiming to be an admin at a university mirror site (Tsinghua TUNA): “As a university mirror admin, calling us ‘lying flat’ or ‘irresponsible’ is unfair and …
Yesterday’s post “PG ‘Export Controls’ and Supply-Chain Trust” drew a comment from someone claiming to be an admin at a university mirror site (Tsinghua TUNA): “As a university mirror admin, calling us ‘lying flat’ or ‘irresponsible’ is unfair and …
Don't Run Docker Postgres for Production!
Back in 2019, I wrote about “Is running postgres in docker a good idea?” — Don’t run PostgreSQL in containers for production, because you’ll likely hit a pile of issues that simply don’t exist on bare metal or VMs. Well, users of Docker’s “official” …
Back in 2019, I wrote about “Is running postgres in docker a good idea?” — Don’t run PostgreSQL in containers for production, because you’ll likely hit a pile of issues that simply don’t exist on bare metal or VMs. Well, users of Docker’s “official” …
DDIA 2nd Edition, Chinese Translation
The new DDIA—Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd Edition—has published its first ten chapters. With Claude Code Max 20× on my side, it took two days to translate the released chapters into Chinese and re-render them via Hugo + Hextra for a …
The new DDIA—Designing Data-Intensive Applications, 2nd Edition—has published its first ten chapters. With Claude Code Max 20× on my side, it took two days to translate the released chapters into Chinese and re-render them via Hugo + Hextra for a …
Column: Database Guru
WeChat Sovereignty & Self-Reliance Build a China-rooted, world-facing PG distribution Supply-chain trust: I won’t bet on absentee maintainers PG “export controls” and supply-chain trust Any domestic DBs that actually deliver? Stop embarrassing us …
WeChat Sovereignty & Self-Reliance Build a China-rooted, world-facing PG distribution Supply-chain trust: I won’t bet on absentee maintainers PG “export controls” and supply-chain trust Any domestic DBs that actually deliver? Stop embarrassing us …
Dongchedi Just Exposed “Smart Driving.” Where’s Our Dongku-Di?
I rented a car today, drove from Shanghai back to Ningbo. Yesterday I watched Dongchedi’s autonomous-driving showdown—closed highway + real city roads + 30+ “smart driving” models. Everyone faceplanted except Tesla. The episode aired and every Tesla …
I rented a car today, drove from Shanghai back to Ningbo. Yesterday I watched Dongchedi’s autonomous-driving showdown—closed highway + real city roads + 30+ “smart driving” models. Everyone faceplanted except Tesla. The episode aired and every Tesla …
Where Will Databases and DBAs Go in the AI Era?
The day before yesterday at the HOW 2025 conference roundtable, Chairman Xiao asked some interesting questions about AI, databases, and DBAs. Here are Feng’s views, organized and published. OLTP / OLAP: Who Gets Revolutionized First? Question: In …
The day before yesterday at the HOW 2025 conference roundtable, Chairman Xiao asked some interesting questions about AI, databases, and DBAs. Here are Feng’s views, organized and published. OLTP / OLAP: Who Gets Revolutionized First? Question: In …
Stop Arguing, The AI Era Database Has Been Settled
This morning, the industry exploded with news of an acquisition. Following Databricks’ $1 billion acquisition of Neon, its rival Snowflake immediately followed by acquiring CrunchyData. According to insiders, this deal was priced at $250 million. …
This morning, the industry exploded with news of an acquisition. Following Databricks’ $1 billion acquisition of Neon, its rival Snowflake immediately followed by acquiring CrunchyData. According to insiders, this deal was priced at $250 million. …
Scaling Postgres to the next level at OpenAI
At PGConf.Dev 2025, Bohan Zhang from OpenAI shared a session titled Scaling Postgres to the next level at OpenAI, giving us a peek into the database usage of a top-tier unicorn. “At OpenAl, we’ve proven that PostgreSQL can scale to support massive …
At PGConf.Dev 2025, Bohan Zhang from OpenAI shared a session titled Scaling Postgres to the next level at OpenAI, giving us a peek into the database usage of a top-tier unicorn. “At OpenAl, we’ve proven that PostgreSQL can scale to support massive …
How Many Shops Has etcd Torched?
A few days ago Yingshi Hurricane shared their Pigsty/PostgreSQL HA incident. The root cause? etcd hit its default 2 GB limit because auto-compaction wasn’t enabled. As @ayanamist put it on X: “Let’s see how many companies this stupid 2 GB design can …
A few days ago Yingshi Hurricane shared their Pigsty/PostgreSQL HA incident. The root cause? etcd hit its default 2 GB limit because auto-compaction wasn’t enabled. As @ayanamist put it on X: “Let’s see how many companies this stupid 2 GB design can …
MySQL vs. PostgreSQL @ 2025
In 2025, PostgreSQL has opened a clear lead over MySQL on features, correctness, performance, and ecosystem—and the gap keeps widening. Here’s the panoramic view. Features Release cadence MySQL just dropped “Innovation” 9.3 (release notes), yet the …
In 2025, PostgreSQL has opened a clear lead over MySQL on features, correctness, performance, and ecosystem—and the gap keeps widening. Here’s the panoramic view. Features Release cadence MySQL just dropped “Innovation” 9.3 (release notes), yet the …
Database Planet Collision: When PG Falls for DuckDB
When I published “PostgreSQL Is Eating the Database World” last year, I tossed out this wild idea: Could Postgres really unify OLTP and OLAP? I had no clue we’d see fireworks so quickly. The PG community’s now in an all-out frenzy to stitch DuckDB …
When I published “PostgreSQL Is Eating the Database World” last year, I tossed out this wild idea: Could Postgres really unify OLTP and OLAP? I had no clue we’d see fireworks so quickly. The PG community’s now in an all-out frenzy to stitch DuckDB …
Comparing Oracle and PostgreSQL Transaction Systems
Original by Laurenz Albe. Translation and commentary by Feng Ruohang. Transactions sit at the heart of relational databases. They guarantee data integrity for applications. SQL defines some transactional behavior but leaves plenty unspecified, so …
Original by Laurenz Albe. Translation and commentary by Feng Ruohang. Transactions sit at the heart of relational databases. They guarantee data integrity for applications. SQL defines some transactional behavior but leaves plenty unspecified, so …
Database as Business Architecture
Databases are the core of business architecture - this is self-evident consensus. But what if we go further and treat databases as business architecture itself, putting business logic, web servers, and even entire front and back ends into databases? …
Databases are the core of business architecture - this is self-evident consensus. But what if we go further and treat databases as business architecture itself, putting business logic, web servers, and even entire front and back ends into databases? …
Solving the 24-Point Card Game with a Single SQL Query
Here is the challenge: Database Programming Contest: Solve the 24-Point Card Game with One SQL Query, hosted by the database tooling platform NineData. There is a table named cards. Its auto-incrementing numeric primary key is id, and it has 4 …
Here is the challenge: Database Programming Contest: Solve the 24-Point Card Game with One SQL Query, hosted by the database tooling platform NineData. There is a table named cards. Its auto-incrementing numeric primary key is id, and it has 4 …
7 Databases in 7 Weeks (2025)
Author: Matt Blewitt, Original: 7 Databases in 7 Weeks (2025) Translator: Feng Ruohang, database veteran, cloud computing mudslide https://matt.blwt.io/post/7-databases-in-7-weeks-for-2025/ For a long time, I’ve been running Databases-as-a-Service, …
Author: Matt Blewitt, Original: 7 Databases in 7 Weeks (2025) Translator: Feng Ruohang, database veteran, cloud computing mudslide https://matt.blwt.io/post/7-databases-in-7-weeks-for-2025/ For a long time, I’ve been running Databases-as-a-Service, …
Self-Hosting Supabase on PostgreSQL
Supabase is great, but having your own Supabase is even better. Pigsty helps you build enterprise-grade Supabase on your own servers (physical/virtual machines/cloud servers) with one-click deployment — more extensions, better performance, deeper …
Supabase is great, but having your own Supabase is even better. Pigsty helps you build enterprise-grade Supabase on your own servers (physical/virtual machines/cloud servers) with one-click deployment — more extensions, better performance, deeper …
Open-Source "Tyrant" Linus's Purge
Recently, Linus kicked out several Russian developers from the project, triggering an outcry in the open source world. But many people forget that Linux is Linus’s personal project — it was 30 years ago, and it still is today. Linus himself has …
Recently, Linus kicked out several Russian developers from the project, triggering an outcry in the open source world. But many people forget that Linux is Linus’s personal project — it was 30 years ago, and it still is today. Linus himself has …
Optimize Bio Cores First, CPU Cores Second
Optimize Bio Cores First, Silicon Cores Second A big part of the reason that companies are going ga-ga over AI right now is the promise that it might materially lower their payroll for programmers. If a company currently needs 10 programmers to do a …
Optimize Bio Cores First, Silicon Cores Second A big part of the reason that companies are going ga-ga over AI right now is the promise that it might materially lower their payroll for programmers. If a company currently needs 10 programmers to do a …
MongoDB Has No Future: Good Marketing Can't Save a Rotten Mango
These past few days, MongoDB’s marketing stunts have been dazzling: “MongoDB Declares War on PostgreSQL”, “MongoDB Defeats PostgreSQL to Win $30 Billion Project”, and the original article from The Register “MongoDB Prepares to Pummel PostgreSQL After …
These past few days, MongoDB’s marketing stunts have been dazzling: “MongoDB Declares War on PostgreSQL”, “MongoDB Defeats PostgreSQL to Win $30 Billion Project”, and the original article from The Register “MongoDB Prepares to Pummel PostgreSQL After …
MongoDB: Now Powered by PostgreSQL?
Preface Tomorrow I’ll publish an article criticizing MongoDB, as a response to their recent malicious marketing that provocatively targets PostgreSQL. But before that, I want to share a brilliant article from 2015 that exposes some of MongoDB’s dark …
Preface Tomorrow I’ll publish an article criticizing MongoDB, as a response to their recent malicious marketing that provocatively targets PostgreSQL. But before that, I want to share a brilliant article from 2015 that exposes some of MongoDB’s dark …
CVE-2024-6387 SSH Vulnerability Fix
Vulnerability description, CVE-2024-6387: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-6387 This basically affects newer versions of operating systems. Older systems like CentOS 7.9, RockyLinux 8.9, Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 11 escaped this due to older …
Vulnerability description, CVE-2024-6387: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-6387 This basically affects newer versions of operating systems. Older systems like CentOS 7.9, RockyLinux 8.9, Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 11 escaped this due to older …
The $20 Brother PolarDB: What Should Databases Actually Cost?
WeChat Public Account Yesterday, a bidding news attracted attention and heated discussion: “The IT industry is broken… 16.1 million dollar contract… 2.9 million (won)… maintenance fee 0.01 yuan… PolarDB unit price 130 yuan”. When I first saw this …
WeChat Public Account Yesterday, a bidding news attracted attention and heated discussion: “The IT industry is broken… 16.1 million dollar contract… 2.9 million (won)… maintenance fee 0.01 yuan… PolarDB unit price 130 yuan”. When I first saw this …
Can Chinese Domestic Databases Really Compete?
WeChat Public Account Friends often ask me, can Chinese domestic databases really compete? To be honest, it’s a question that offends people. So let’s try speaking with data - I hope the charts provided in this article can help readers understand …
WeChat Public Account Friends often ask me, can Chinese domestic databases really compete? To be honest, it’s a question that offends people. So let’s try speaking with data - I hope the charts provided in this article can help readers understand …