Skip to main content

Couchbase is not CouchDB

May 16, 2016 mgroves 0 Comments
Tags: couchbase personal

There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things. -Phil Karlton

It seems that naming has been an issue that has plagued my entire career. Confusing names. Names that sound similar but mean very different things. I'm even guilty of causing it!

But if you take one thing away from this blog post: Couchbase is not CouchDB. They are both database products, with some common roots, but they are not the same thing.

Interested in learning more? Check out:

While I'm at it, let me clear up a few other naming confusions that have plagued me for a long time:

College

  • I used single letter variables. For no good reason. It didn't occur to me that I could use an entire word!
  • For my undergrad. I went to Ohio University. No, not the Buckeyes of Columbus. The Bobcats of Athens.
  • Oh, but I also went to The Ohio State University for my master's. Those are the Buckeyes of Columbus.

Working at OSU

  • I worked full time at OSU. I started out in Student Affairs Business Office, which used to be called something else (HFSEC or something?)
  • I moved to Student Affairs IT.
  • Student Affairs was renamed to Student Life.
  • I have no idea what it's called now. I still call it Student Life.

Family names

  • My wife and I named our firstborn "Matthew Kevin Groves".
  • He's not Matthew Groves Jr, because my middle name isn't Kevin.
  • The convention within my family is that I am "Matt" and he is "Matthew".
  • "Groves", "Grover", "Tall Guy" also work. If you call me "Tall Guy", be prepared to be called "Shorty" or "Shrimp".
  • I will NOT tolerate any use of "Matty".
  • I'm not "Grooves" or "Graves" or "Grove".
  • I live in Grove City, Ohio. I realize this doesn't help.
  • I used to live in an apartment complex called "The Groves", which is in Grove City.
  • I may be related to Leslie Groves. This has nothing to do with naming, it's just a cool bit of trivia I thought I would mention.

Quick Solutions

  • I worked at Quick Solutions in Columbus for a bit.
  • Quick Solutions was named after a guy with a last name of Quick. Neat, huh?
  • It's not called Quick Solutions anymore; It's Fusion Alliance now.

Telligent

  • I worked for Telligent for a few years. It's a company based in Dallas which makes the excellent Telligent Community product.
  • They changed their name to Zimbra while I was working there (after an acquisition).
  • After I left, they changed their name back to Telligent (after some sort of spin-off). The people I knew and worked with are with Telligent.
  • Telligent and Telerik are different companies; I've never worked for Telerik.
  • Jim Holmes worked for both Telligent and Telerik. Thanks for that, Jim.

Couchbase

  • Not CouchDB.
  • Couchbase.
  • If it helps, think of "SQL Server" and "MySQL". They both have "SQL" in the name, but they aren't the same thing.
  • Couch is an acronym (Cluster Of Unreliable Commodity Hardware).

Well, that's it. I started this post just to help and clear up the "CouchDB" and "Couchbase" thing, but it turned into more of a personal rant. Anyway. Couchbase.

 

Comments

Matthew D. Groves

About the Author

Matthew D. Groves lives in Central Ohio. He works remotely, loves to code, and is a Microsoft MVP.

Latest Comments

Twitter