Are you willing to say that the PostgreSQL database system should only be used by DBAs? I believe that Postgres is such a good and useful tool that anyone should be able to start using it with little or no barrier to entry.
I quite agree. But there is a difference between saying "you should get decent performance with no effort" and "you should get optimal performance with no effort". I think we can get to the first with relatively little trouble (like boosting the default shared_buffers to 1000), but the second is an impractical goal.
Just wanted to repeat some of the thoughts already been expressed.
There are no reasons why shouldn't PostgreSQL be reasonably well configured for a particular platform out of the box. Not for maximum performance but for good enough performance. The many complaints by new users about PostgreSQL being suprisingly slow and the all the so standard answers (vacuum, pump up memory settings) imho prove that the default installatio can be improved. Already mentioned in the mail lists: using multiple standard conf files, quering system info and dynamically generating all or some parts of the conf file, automating the vacuum process...
Kaarel
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