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This is essentially a re-explanation of Neon’s architecture as a blog post. Amazing that the Postgres ecosystem got this software for “free” (as in at least a
by hardwaresofton 4mo ago
This is essentially a re-explanation of Neon’s architecture as a blog post.
Amazing that the Postgres ecosystem got this software for “free” (as in at least a basic version of it is F/OSS, IIRC there wasn’t any core bits held back), and the extremely engineer-heavy company got to make money, AND they got bought out in true acquisition style by a larger player that truly benefits from the tech.
The Postgres ecosystem is pretty unique in its ability to produce a “boring” stable product, innovate, stay F/OSS, and create financial outcomes for participants.
- xyzzy_plugh 4mo agoAs far as I know Neon's open source repositories are no longer being updated/maintained.
- hardwaresofton 4mo agoYou can't have it all, forever -- the tech is there for anyone to fork and improve, build new businesses (!), inspect, etc. F/OSS is basically a miracle as-is. If we compare the current state of the world to one in which they were acquired and then continued to put out more F/OSS, things look bad (which I assume is your implication). I choose to instead make the comparison to the world where we never see this tech and it stays proprietary. Sure, eventually someone in F/OSS might have gotten around to building this solution, but they pulled forward the future and we get to see and build on the result for free.
- philippemnoel 4mo agoThis a 100 times^. The Postgres ecosystem is remarkable and has managed to strike the balance between OSS and commercial successes in a way that most infra verticals have not.
- conradludgate 4mo ago(Neon/databricks employee here) Neon also only just disabled FPWs - so there is new substance here. We published a similar blog on Neon https://neon.com/blog/turning-off-fpw-for-faster-writes https://neon.com/blog/turning-off-fpw-for-faster-writes