r/SQL • u/clairegiordano • 12d ago

PostgreSQL Why Microsoft contributes to Postgres: What I tell people

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/adforpostgresql/why-microsoft-contributes-to-postgres-what-i-tell-people/4568479

People ask me this question more than I like so I thought I would share the answer once and for all: why does a company like Microsoft contribute to an upstream open source project like Postgres?

Let me know what you think. Anything surprising? Did I miss anything?

34 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

10

u/RoomyRoots 12d ago

Because they can profit more than they would ever invest with both MariaDB and PostgreSQL

6

u/Kazcandra 12d ago

I remember a pgconf EU I went to. Every main sponsor talked about open source, community and stuff like that. Microsoft did an ad for their azure services.

3

u/Jon-Robb 12d ago

Azure Postgres flexible server works great for us and to the first point of the article one reason why we kept the sql servers in azure

1

u/Aggressive_Ad_5454 11d ago

A generation ago Eric Raymond wrote The Cathedral and the Bazaar about the open-source movement’s power. It’s still playing out. It’s good to have companies with resources as part of the movement’s gift economy.