Magnus Hagander’s lucky break with Postgres: getting to have his job be his hobby, and his hobby be his job. In Episode 45 of Talking Postgres, Magnus—PostgreSQL committer, core team member, chair of PostgreSQL Europe, and longtime PGConf.EU organizer—walks Claire through how he got started in Postgres in the late 90s. We dig into porting the Postgres database server to Windows across three time zones, being told the project was doomed unless it moved to SourceForge (ha!), and why it’s harder to become a Postgres committer today. Of course we talk about the conferences he helps run: PGConf.EU, Nordic PGDay, and FOSDEM PGDay 2027. Plus: his first patch (one line, and it doesn’t carry his name) and why you shouldn’t have an AI agent write your patch.

Previously on Talking Postgres:

• Talking Postgres podcast Ep20: How I got started as a developer (& in Postgres) with Tom Lane
• Talking Postgres podcast Ep19: Becoming a Postgres committer with Melanie Plageman

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Event: PostgreSQL Anniversary Summit, in Toronto on 8-9 Jul 2006
• PGConf.dev 2025 talk: postgresql.org: The hidden parts, by Magnus Hagander
• FOSDEM PGDay 2026 talk slide: Who serves on the Postgres sysadmin team, by Claire Giordano
• Board of Directors: PostgreSQL Europe non-profit
• Keynote at the first POSETTE (then called Citus Con): PostgreSQL—more relevant than ever, by Magnus Hagander
• PostgreSQL mailing list: Tom Lane’s 2006 email on the name PostgreSQL
• Discord: PostgreSQL Development Discord
• Conference: PGConf.EU 2026 in Valencia
• Two days this time: FOSDEM PGDay 2027, on 28 & 29 Jan 2027
• Conference: FOSDEM 2027 in Brussels, on 30 & 31 Jan 2027
• Conference: Nordic PGDay 2027 in Stockholm, on 16 Mar 2027
• Conference: PGConf.dev 2027 in Montréal, on 11-14 May 2027
• Conference: POSETTE: An Event for Postgres 2027, happening 30 & 31 Mar 2027
• Conference: SCaLE 24x in Pasadena, happening 1-4 Apr 2027

In this episode, we covered:

00:00 Intro & music

03:13 The internet showed up

09:36 A one-line patch so Postgres would compile on Linux

12:53 Porting Postgres to Windows across 3 continents

18:32 PostgreSQL Europe was founded at FOSDEM

25:06 If that's our biggest mistake, we're doing fine

28:47 First Nordic PGDay: booked for 50, got 100

33:11 Trying a smaller Nordic event in Gothenburg

38:31 Self-hosting Postgres infrastructure

47:19 Battling AI agents that ignore robots.txt

50:25 From a bar in a city wall to 750 attendees

56:26 Announcing the next PGConf.EU location

58:22 The lucky break: when my hobby became my job

1:00:24 What keeps Magnus coming back to Postgres

1:02:26 It’s harder to become a committer today

1:09:15 Don't just have an AI agent write your patch