PostgreSQL vs. MySQL: Who has the best community?

Maybe there's still some fight in the PostgreSQL competition, after all. [Update: Or maybe it has more to do with internal changes at MySQL - see below.] According to data compiled by MarkMail, PostgreSQL messaging traffic dwarfs that of MySQL's, suggesting that the Postgres community is more active than MySQL's:

Comparing PostgreSQL and MySQL is kind of interesting. With all the talk about the LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP-Perl-Python) architecture you'd think MySQL had a lock on the open source database market, but based on simple message traffic analytics, PostgreSQL has a much higher level of community involvement. Looking at January 2000 onward, the MySQL lists have amassed 340,000 messages with about 3,000 new messages each month. In the same time period, the PostgreSQL lists have hit 583,000 messages with 7,000 new each month.

I'm surprised. A (highly imperfect) Google Trends analysis shows MySQL (blue) dwarfing PostgreSQL (red) in terms of search interest (but both are on the decline):

Of course, if you do an (also very imperfect) Alexa analysis, MySQL(.com) is way above Redhat.com, postgresql.org, sugarcrm.com, and jboss.org.

Does this mean anything? Not sure. I do know that MySQL was recently bought for $1 billion and I haven't seen anyone buying up EnterpriseDB, Greenplum, and other PostgreSQL companies (though this isn't to say, by any means, that it won't happen). But clearly the messaging on community mailing lists is a very imperfect means to measure popularity.

UPDATED: I received a useful bit of information that likely explains why MySQL's messaging traffic appears to have hit its peak in 2001 to 2003, and declined since then. This almost certainly relates to MySQL moving its general and bugs discussions from the mailing lists to forums and bugs system. In other words, traffic hasn't gone down...it has just moved to different forums that MarkMail doesn't track/host.

[pscoop]

I think this is just an consequence of the different licencing and therefore business model. First the obvious MySQL is GPL / dual licenced and PostgreSQL is BSD style licenced, which means that MySQL require copyright assignment which tends to suppress a development community, whereas PostgreSQL's lack of single ownership tends to encourage a development community, but the BSD licence more or less forces EnterpriseDB, et al into a Proprietary addon model, and since none of them own the code outright it probably limits their total value in an aquisition.

Really it's a shame that PostgreSQL isn't GPL with no single owner (much like the Linux kernel) - that would provide a quite stark difference to MySQL and also force / encourage companies built around it to invest in the open coure rather than closed extensions.

[TimBowden]

Matt, Interesting statistics indeed. As a PostgreSQL(/PostGIS) user, I'm rooting for the underdog in this one. I don't have firsthand experience of the MySQL community, but the PostgreSQL community is certainly a healthy one. PostgreSQL's consistent substantial releases also indicate a healthy state.

[datacharmer]

Since 2005 MySQL has moved a large part of its mailing lists traffic to the forums (190,000 posts so far) and the web based bugs system ( 34,000 bugs reported and 157,000 comments).
The total traffic generated for the compared period should be then
340,000 + 190,000 + 34,000 + 157,000 = 721,000

Giuseppe