Fletcher
Panel
This roundtable retrospective celebrates 30 years of open source PostgreSQL by bringing together project founders and early contributors to reflect on the project’s formative years and its remarkable evolution. Featuring Bruce Momjian, Tom Lane, Thomas Lockhart, Jan Wieck, Vadim Mikheev, and Jolly Chen, the discussion will revisit what the Postgres project was like in its earliest open source incarnation—technically, culturally, and socially.
Panelists will share how they each became involved, what motivated them to contribute, and what it was like to turn an academic project into production-ready software with a small, distributed group of volunteers at a time when open source itself was still an experiment.
The conversation will include behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes from the early days, including the creation of the mailing lists, design debates, and pivotal moments that shaped the project’s direction.
Looking forward from the vantage point of three decades of growth, the panel will also reflect on what they might have done differently, knowing what PostgreSQL would eventually become, and offer insights into how those early decisions continue to influence the project today.
