Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

So I saw this today. It includes this tone-deaf phrase:

Bigtable is a huge limitation since it really doesn’t provide you with the tools that mySQL or similar engines do. In a sense, it is really limiting, but there’s a reason for it.

So here is the thing: the same criticisms that were launched against BigTable were initially MySQL criticisms: the lack of real relational support, the lack of transactions. The author isn't *wrong* he is just lacking history:

PostgreSQL was always the "Oracle clone". MySQL was "Used at NASA" for ginormous datasets, but it lacked RI or transactions. Yeah, now that MySQL includes these "features" it has disanvantages next to SimpleDB or BigTable. Ab-so-smurf-ly a lot of people don't NEED this functionality. However, when you do, you *really* do. As much as I hate EJB, we are talking about an EJB problem: the people that need this solution *really* need it. Nobody else cares. BigTable or SimpleDB are going to gain traction in exactly the same way MySQL did: because the 80% app doesn't care. AppSpot, isn't built for the 20% application ANYWAY. So yeah, it * *wins*, like semi-drunken screed about Blizzard:

9. Control expectations.

If you have a non-user deterministic software product (Google Search) you can talk about six-sigma uptime. Otherwise, if you have a product where the operational mechanics are critical (MMOG, Banking, ISPs) you will have downtime. Be upfront with the customers. Schedule outages fairly and tell your operations team to actually post to the Network Status page on your web site. While you deal with a lot of retards, if you have a status page and it shows you know and are making a good college try to deal with a problem, you will save yourself hundreds, if not thousands of contacts to customer support, and that will drive up your value in #8.

Yeah. If the user doesn't frakkin know what the result should be to a query, you will wear out your boots from kicking so much ass. However, if this is a deterministic problem, you WANT him on that wall. You NEED him on that wall. You sleep and rise under the very blanket of freedom he provide and then you criticize the speed with which he provides it.

Movie quotes aside, this argument is one for your IT dev team, not a "real" argument in the SC world.