To: PFC <lists@peufeu.com>
cc: "Campbell, Lance" <lance@uiuc.edu>, pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: PostgreSQL Configuration Tool for Dummies 
In-reply-to: <op.tt6h27arcigqcu@apollo13> 
References: <A3AC4FA47DC0B1458C3E5396E685E63302395E5D@SAB-DC1.sab.uiuc.edu>
	<op.tt6h27arcigqcu@apollo13>
Comments: In-reply-to PFC <lists@peufeu.com>
	message dated "Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:12:33 +0200"
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:40:05 -0400
Message-ID: <16559.1182289205@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

PFC <lists@peufeu.com> writes:
>> What version of PostgreSQL are you using?

> 	I think newbies should be pushed a bit to use the latest versions,

How about pushed *hard* ?  I'm constantly amazed at the number of people
who show up in the lists saying they installed 7.3.2 or whatever random
version they found in a dusty archive somewhere.  "Please upgrade" is at
least one order of magnitude more valuable configuration advice than
anything else we could tell them.

If the configurator is a live tool on the website, then it could be
aware of the latest release numbers and prod people with an appropriate
amount of urgency depending on how old they say their version is.  This
may be the one good reason not to provide it as a standalone program.

(No, we shouldn't make it try to "phone home" for latest release numbers
--- in the first place, that won't work if the machine is really
isolated from the net, and in the second place people will be suspicious
of the motives.)

			regards, tom lane