[plug] Database on Linux

[Peter Robinson]

On Wed, 25 Nov 1998, John Summerfield wrote:

> On Tue, 24 Nov 1998, Damion Hill wrote:
> > I have been doing some research as to which db will best suit my 
> > needs and have looked favourably at PostgreSQL. Does anyone 
> > have any horror stories about this system? I've noticed MySQL 
> > seems to have more publicity but does it deserve it? Also, I have a 
> > copy of Oracle (the pre-release) that I still haven't installed (sys 
> > upgrade soon, might go for it), does anybody think this is the way 
> > to go?
> 
> I decided not to use PostgreSQL as soon as I found its numbers are limited
> in size to 9 digits. I've not looked further, so don't know if it has the
> same failings as MySQL.
> 
> On RH systems, this is the easiest to installed: just select and install
> the RPMs.
> 
> MySQL doesn't justify any claim to be relational: it has no idea of
> Relational Integrity. That is, you can't define and enforce foreign keys
> and the developers don't understand its importance. It also has (according
> to the docs) funny ideas about decimal numbers.
> 
> Oracle, otoh, is industrial strength. Some of the world's largest databases
> are controlled with Oracle.It's also large: if you download it, expect 139
> Mb.
> 
> Oracle is a commercial product, but free on Linux in some circumstances.
> afaicr MySQL costs under some circumstances.

You forgot Sybase ASE -> its totally free under Linux, not sure of the
details. With Oracle its free to developers but if you want to use it
commericially you have to pay, Sybase you can use it commercially for free
as well. That is why distributed.net is going to use it for there new
Stats server along with Linux unlike the NT + MSSQL they currently use.

Peter