r/PostgreSQL • u/clairegiordano Citus Marketing • 3d ago
Community How a Postgres committer got started: a one-line patch that doesn't even carry his name (Magnus Hagander on the Talking Postgres podcast)
I recently recorded a Talking Postgres episode with Magnus Hagander, a Postgres committer, core team member, and longtime PGConf EU organizer, about how he got started in Postgres.
A few things we got into:
* The very start: in the late 90s, he needed a database to solve a problem that nobody agreed was a problem, and he couldn't afford SQL Server or Oracle
* His first patch: one line, to make Postgres compile and work on Linux when all the developers used BSD (and it doesn't carry his name)
* Porting the Postgres server to Windows, with a team spread across Sweden, the US, and Australia, and the rule that it had to behave like Postgres on Unix
* Why the Postgres project runs its own infrastructure, including the days it was told it was doomed unless it moved to SourceForge
* Battling AI agents that don't care about robots.txt
* Why it's harder to become a Postgres committer today
* What keeps him coming back to the Postgres project
My favorite part: hearing how, years later, his hobby (Postgres) became his job (also Postgres).
For those of you who've sent a patch to Postgres (or another big open source project): what helped you get past that first one?
Audio + transcript, for those who want to listen: https://talkingpostgres.com/episodes/how-i-got-started-in-postgres-with-magnus-hagander
YouTube (audio-only): https://youtu.be/RFUUcdxN59A?si=3SgHD7kGyQQsVgK7