PostgreSQL 17 Released: The Database That's Not Just Playing Anymore!
The annual PostgreSQL major release is here! What surprises does PostgreSQL 17 have in store for us?
In this release announcement, the PostgreSQL global community has finally dropped the act — sorry, we’re not playing anymore — “PostgreSQL is now the world’s most advanced open-source database, becoming the preferred choice for organizations of all sizes”. While not explicitly naming names, the official announcement comes incredibly close to shouting “we’re taking down the top commercial databases” (Oracle).
In my article “PostgreSQL is Eating the Database World” published earlier this year, I argued that scalability is PostgreSQL’s unique core advantage. I’m thrilled to see this become the focus and consensus of the PostgreSQL community in just six months, as demonstrated at PGCon.Dev 2024 and this PostgreSQL 17 release.
Regarding new features, I’ve already covered them in my article “PostgreSQL 17 Beta1 Released! The Performance Tube is Bursting!”, so I won’t repeat them here. This major version brings many new features, but what impressed me most is that PG managed to double its write throughput on top of its already impressive performance — unpretentiously powerful.
However, beyond specific features, I believe the biggest transformation in the PG community is in its mindset and spirit — in this release announcement, PostgreSQL has dropped the “relational” qualifier from its slogan “the world’s most advanced open-source relational database”, becoming simply “the world’s most advanced open-source database”. And in the “About PostgreSQL” section, it states: “PG’s feature set, advanced capabilities, scalability, security, and stability now rival and even surpass top-tier commercial databases”. So I think it won’t be long before the “open-source” qualifier can be dropped too, becoming simply “the world’s most advanced database”.
The PostgreSQL beast has awakened — it’s no longer the peaceful, non-confrontational entity of the past, but has transformed into an aggressive, forward-looking force — ready to take over and conquer the entire database world. And countless capital has already flooded into the PostgreSQL ecosystem, with PG-based startups taking almost all the new money in database funding. PostgreSQL is destined to become the “Linux kernel” of the database world, and DBMS disputes might evolve into internal PostgreSQL distribution battles in the future. Let’s wait and see.
