This article maintains that the
new Great Bridge PostgresSQL release, made yesterday, is priced
to counter Red Hat’s recent move into the database business with
its own Postgres offering… a move conceived after Postgres turned
down an earlier partnership offer.
“The new pricing comes shortly after Red Hat, the top
seller of the Linux operating system and a powerhouse in the world
of open-source software, announced its own entry into the database
market. Red Hat approached Great Bridge as a potential business
partner, but Great Bridge didn’t like the terms of the deal, and
now the two companies are competitors.The pricing change is a dramatic shift for Great Bridge, a
subsidiary of Landmark Communications. Previously, the company had
emphasized support packages costing thousands of dollars per year
while suggesting that free, downloadable versions of the company’s
software–sans support–would suffice for those wanting to simply
get their feet wet.”