On 10/10/2011 09:08 AM, Le_Forgeron wrote:

> Depend on what you intend to use a RDMS for.

This.



No, really. Everything else flows from this.

> For private/home use (where free is less expensive too), I usually
> compare with MySql and Postgresql.

Last time I looked at MySQL, it had almost no features at all. I mean, 
even trivial stuff like sub-selects wasn't implemented. By default it 
doesn't support transactions (!), unless you specially configure it to 
do so. It seemed like a cheap toy.

Then again, if you're only trying to store your CD collection, then 
sure, MySQL can handle that just fine.

I looked into PostgreSQL. I don't think I ever got around to actually 
using it though. It seemed reasonable.

On Windows there's Jet. (Although you might possibly need Microsoft 
Access installed to make use of it. I'm not sure.)

> For enterprise use, I have a very good recollection about Informix,
> and despite industry standard, a not so good about Oracle DB.

For some reason, it's very fashionable to hate Oracle. Personally, it's 
the DB I'm most familiar with, and the one I like the best. I understand 
it's a free download now, and you can use it for NON-COMMERCIAL purposes 
completely free of charge.

I strongly recommend that you DO NOT do this.

Oracle is great if you need enterprise-grade functionality. It's 
massively overkill for home use. Because of all the advanced features, 
it's very complicated to set up. (One of the main reasons people hate it 
so much is the unfriendly interface.)

Nobody sets up a 200-node data center with load balancing and 
hot-failover just for their home stuff. Similarly, nobody should 
consider using Oracle DB for home projects. (Unless that project is to 
actually learn Oracle for when somebody pays you to use it.)

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