To explain my comment...

1. Couchdb is not installed and available everywhere like mysql.

2. The API is not stable (they haven't reached 1.0 yet), so code you wrote for it a year ago does not work on versions today. Code you write for it today will likely not work in two years time.

This is 'why not couch db' for me.

If you need to wait for wide adoption in the hosted server market place, this seems like a sensible concern. You can install CouchDB by hand of course, it's really not that hard.

The API changes occasionally, as is natural. The project is improving as we get more popular and people suggest new and better ways of doing things. This is part of having a healthy free software community. It's important to point out that the API is so simple it's crazy, and it changes very infrequently - so it's really not much of an issue.

These are fair points, but what do you expect from a project in alpha state not nearly half the age of MySQL? :)

If they're trying to sell themselves as a reasonable alternative (let alone superior), yes, I do.

Wait, what? Where does it say we're an alternative to relational databases, or MySQL?

The whole article is a comparison to relational databases.

Nope, it's really not meant to be. But it is intended as a primer for those coming from a relational database background. CouchDB is NOT a replacement or an alternative to relational databases. CouchDB is fundamentally a different way to model data. That may work for you, it may not. CouchDB is not a panacea.

I think they're trying to say how they differ from relational databases since most people know and understand relational databases. It's like telling someone in America how cricket is played and using baseball as a base point to explain it.

Yes. Saying how something differs is called a comparison.

In response to "Wait, what? Where does it say we're an alternative to relational databases, or MySQL?" you responded: "The whole article is a comparison to relational databases."

Sure sounded to me like that was an answer to his question, and you were saying the author is saying CouchDB is an alternative to relational databases by saying it is a comparison.

I obviously wasn't trying to define what a comparison is, I was just giving a reason FOR this particular comparison.

You need not be so snide, sir.

The whole article is the first chapter of a book scheduled to be published in summer 2009. We are writing about the future here :)