Developer Voices

Author: Kris Jenkins

Deep-dive discussions with the smartest developers we know, explaining what they're working on, how they're trying to move the industry forward, and what we can learn from them.You might find the solution to your next architectural headache, pick up a new programming language, or just hear some good war stories from the frontline of technology.Join your host Kris Jenkins as we try to figure out what tomorrow's computing will look like the best way we know how - by listening directly to the developers' voices.
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Will Turso Be The Better SQLite? (with Glauber Costa)
Thursday, 11 December, 2025

SQLite is embedded everywhere - phones, browsers, IoT devices. It's reliable, battle-tested, and feature-rich. But what if you want concurrent writes? Or CDC for streaming changes? Or vector indexes for AI workloads? The SQLite codebase isn't accepting new contributors, and the test suite that makes it so reliable is proprietary. So how do you evolve an embedded database that's effectively frozen?Glauber Costa spent a decade contributing to the Linux kernel at Red Hat, then helped build Scylla, a high-performance rewrite of Cassandra. Now he's applying those lessons to SQLite. After initially forking SQLite (which produced a working business but failed to attract contributors), his team is taking the bolder path: a complete rewrite in Rust called Turso. The project already has features SQLite lacks - vector search, CDC, browser-native async operation - and is using deterministic simulation testing (inspired by TigerBeetle) to match SQLite's legendary reliability without access to its test suite.The conversation covers why rewrites attract contributors where forks don't, how the Linux kernel maintains quality with thousands of contributors, why Pekka's "pet project" jumped from 32 to 64 contributors in a month, and what it takes to build concurrent writes into an embedded database from scratch.--Support Developer Voices on Patreon: https://patreon.com/DeveloperVoicesSupport Developer Voices on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices/joinTurso: https://turso.tech/Turso GitHub: https://github.com/tursodatabase/tursolibSQL (SQLite fork): https://github.com/tursodatabase/libsqlSQLite: https://www.sqlite.org/Rust: https://rust-lang.org/ScyllaDB (Cassandra rewrite): https://www.scylladb.com/Apache Cassandra: https://cassandra.apache.org/DuckDB (analytical embedded database): https://duckdb.org/MotherDuck (DuckDB cloud): https://motherduck.com/dqlite (Canonical distributed SQLite): https://canonical.com/dqliteTigerBeetle (deterministic simulation testing): https://tigerbeetle.com/Redpanda (Kafka alternative): https://www.redpanda.com/Linux Kernel: https://kernel.org/Datadog: https://www.datadoghq.com/Glauber Costa on X: https://x.com/glcstGlauber Costa on GitHub: https://github.com/glommerKris on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/krisajenkins.bsky.socialKris on Mastodon: http://mastodon.social/@krisajenkinsKris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krisjenkins/--0:00 Intro3:16 Ten Years Contributing to the Linux Kernel15:17 From Linux to Startups: OSv and Scylla26:23 Lessons from Scylla: The Power of Ecosystem Compatibility33:00 Why SQLite Needs More37:41 Open Source But Not Open Contribution48:04 Why a Rewrite Attracted Contributors When a Fork Didn't57:22 How Deterministic Simulation Testing Works1:06:17 70% of SQLite in Six Months1:12:12 Features Beyond SQLite: Vector Search, CDC, and Browser Support1:19:15 The Challenge of Adding Concurrent Writes1:25:05 Building a Self-Sustaining Open Source Community1:30:09 Where Does Turso Fit Against DuckDB?1:41:00 Could Turso Compete with Postgres?1:46:21 How Do You Avoid a Toxic Community Culture?1:50:32 Outro