Redis does not invent nothing new. It's 50 years ago technology mostly, at work. VM, Data structures, and so forth. Even the language it is implemented in, C, is old. But it's not an object database, and this is the point.<p>Databases are like languages. Does Ruby invented something new? No, but it's my preferred high level language. It's a matter of "interpretation" of already implemented concepts, not a matter of features set.<p>AFAIK Redis is one of the first DBs exposing basic computer science data structures as abstract types. You have sets, linked lists, a sorted type that is the equivalent of a balanced tree, and an dictionary (an hash table) on top of this.<p>What matters is if this interpretation of already existing technologies fit well with the needs of today. I'll leave the task of inventing new breaking things to CS departments as I'm a programmer and not a scientist, with all the limits and strengths that this implies.<p>As long as we, programmers, developers, hackers, computer entusiasts, don't realize that our work is an interpretation work, like architects, we will continue to be nerdy engineers that the society will continue to look at without to recognize the real value.<p>Do you evaluate a building based on his number of rooms, the ability to resist to forces, and so forth? I don't think so. Why you should use this meters for software?