Anonymous 13700
Thanks for db<>fiddle! It is great!
I have a question that is bothering me %)
Why new postgres versions (16, 17) start slower than all previous ones? All previous versions start ~ x6 times faster.
Top Answer
Jack Douglas
Newer Postgres engines (16 & 17) are using firecracker for the backend instead of full fat VMs. It's a trade-off, you get better isolation and superuser access, the system gets better security, easier maintenance, and better scaling, but you lose a few seconds in startup time. It's not x6 faster, it's +5s for every fiddle, so quick fiddles feel much slower but longer-running fiddles you don't notice so much.
Going forward, I don't see me going back to VMs, firecracker is the future for Linux backends. The route to improving performance will be [getting new hardware](https://topanswers.xyz/fiddle?q=6078) and making the firecracker VMs more slimline so they boot faster.
