OESF Portables Forum
Everything Else => General Support and Discussion => Zaurus General Forums => Archived Forums => Software => Topic started by: TonyOlsen on May 28, 2004, 01:20:04 pm
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What is the best OpenSource database? Why? How does it compare to Oracle and SQL-Server?
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Erm... that\'s a very, very, very broad and ambitious question. Many flame wars have been fought over it but I\'ll do my best.
Relational database is a relatively complex piece of software so there\'s no dominant \"best of breed\" product in the open source DB arena. The major players, however, include:
- MySQL (biggest community, focus on performance & stability, somewhat lacking in enterprise features but that\'s changing rapidly)
- PostgreSQL (focus on feature completeness & standard support, performance catching up fast)
- Firebird (formerly a closed-source database released by Borland)
- there are rumours Computer Associates is about to open-source Ingres so that should stir things up a bit...
As for embeddable databases (i.e. something designed to be run on a box such as the Z):
- sqlite (used for storing PIM data in newest Opie versions)
- hsqldb (written in Java, used in Java apps, very straightforward)
- tinysql (don\'t know much about that but I think it\'s still maintained)
Out of all these, I ran mysql, hsqldb and sqlite on my 5500, no problems. hsqldb has a nice GUI client but, of course, you have to have Java set up.
As for comparisons vs. Oracle or MSSQL, you could write a thesis on that but the first three I\'ve mentioned are pretty much up there although Oracle Inc. and M$ would like you to think otherwise. The only major difference is perhaps admin tools (always more eye-candy in the proprietary land) and a few features mostly for Fortune 500 level databases. As soon as mysql gets true integrity constraints, stored procedures and nested queries (which PostgreSQL already has if I\'m correct) it will be a killer.
Apologies for everyone whose favorite DB I\'ve failed to mention, it\'s hard to keep up.
z.
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I work with Oracle in a very large database with hundreds tables (normally each of they have 1 million to 33 million records), hundreds views, ..., links with other local and remote db, ...
I used at home PostgreSQL and I think it is very good db, for some things it is better than Oracle. I have managed tables up to 22 million records with not too much problem with a t-bird 1000 Mhz
Some year ego I have used sql-server and I think that this one is not a \"database\" (if you use a databse for woriking and not joiking)
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is there any recent port of MySQL for the Z ( ]4.0 ) ? as the most recent i\'ve found is 3.22.something which lacks lots of commands (as i\'m learning SQL by now it would have been great if I could train on the Z but I cant use views nor imbricated functions ...)
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Thanks! =)
MySQL
About a year ago I wanted to try this datababe out, but when I went to their site... it\'s wasn\'t free. Is MySQL free? ...or was I just looking at the wrong place?
The DB features that are most important to me are:
* Relational Tables (I think you said that all of the ones above count as that)
* Grouping ( \"GROUP BY\" clause in the query... I don\'t think MS Access supports this, but Oracle and SQL Server do)
* Views
* Snapshots or MaterializedViews (This one may not be supported in many places)
Does MySQL do these well? I was previously thinking of switching to MySQL...
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Thanks! =)
About a year ago I wanted to try this datababe out, but when I went to their site... it\'s wasn\'t free. Is MySQL free? ...or was I just looking at the wrong place?
yes it is free.
He have the GPL license, so you can use it as free software.
MySql society have the all the right on this software so it can also sell it with another license (it sell it with a commercial license).
The DB features that are most important to me are:
* Relational Tables (I think you said that all of the ones above count as that)
* Grouping ( \"GROUP BY\" clause in the query... I don\'t think MS Access supports this, but Oracle and SQL Server do)
* Views
* Snapshots or MaterializedViews (This one may not be supported in many places)
Does MySQL do these well? I was previously thinking of switching to MySQL...
I don\'t know what is materialized views.
I think there are all basic task that all relational db have.