"By 1996 Borland, Microsoft and Powerbuilder/Sybase gave the kitchen table programmer tools to build an enterprise app, including a 'DBMS' which, while good enough for testing, was limited to a handful of connections.You could buy the development tool for $400 to $2000, but to deploy it you'd spend a fortune on licenses for DBMS and other middleware.
"Then came Linux.
"One by one, technologies unaffordable to individual software developers became free. Compilers, network technologies, and even PostgreSQL--a professional grade DBMS.
"PostgreSQL, often nicknamed 'Postgres,' offers SQL query support. It offers a high power command line front end called psql for a DBA to manage the database. It has excellent transactional support. Sophisiticated triggers and stored procedures are available thanks to the built in plpgsql programming language..."
