PostgreSQL is an amazing project. A no-nonsense database that delivers what it promises. I'm amazed at what a talented group of people can accomplish when they are driven and put their mind to it.
Thanks for a wonderful product.
Plus their documentation is top notch. After using Oracle for 15 years, I nearly cried when I moved to Postgres recently and saw how wonderful their documentation is.
I've often said that I didn't learn English grammar until I studied German, I didn't understand Linux until I read the Arch documentation, and I didn't comprehend relational data until I read the Postgres documentation.
A friend of mine was doing an MBA and was planning a paper on open source collaboration models. She asked me for my opinion on well-run projects and Postgres was the first thing that crossed my mind.
They have an excellent combination of goals, structure and expertise, and have created a remarkably low-drama, functional community around delivering excellent tools. I really think there's a lot to emulate there.
My short story regarding community. A few years ago I wanted to add a feature to PL/pgSQL that was on their TODO list. I asked about the feature on a public list and while I was unknown to the community I immediately got a private email from a developer who contributed to that part of code. We discussed the required changes and I prepared a patch. He reviewed it and later was supporting during formal review.
