December 15, 2000, 12:00 AM — This week's newsletter includes a quick overview of available
Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) for Linux that will help
you find a database that suits your needs, budget, and personal taste.
MySQL www.mysql.com
One of the most popular RDBMS for Linux, MySQL is free for
noncommercial use and offers high performance and reliability.
Pros: Still behind first league products
Cons: Fast, easy to use
GNU SQL www.ispras.ru/~kml/gss
A multi-user RDBMS with client/server architecture. Offers basic
administration operations.
Pros: Open Source, portable,
Cons: Still a beta, certainly not for time-critical systems
PostgresSQL www.postgresql.org
PostgresSQL is based on an RDBMS engine developed at Berkeley. Linux
versions of PostgresSQL are included in Red Hat, Debian, and Slackware
distributions.
Pros: Free, Open Source, minimal installation requirements
Cons: Unsuitable for large-scale systems.
Oracle www.oracle.com
The truth must be told: Although it's not an Open Source product nor
is it free, Oracle is unbeatable by any other RDBMS in terms of
scalability, redundancy, fault-tolerance, security.
Pros: The Rolls Royce of RDBMS, excellent Internet interfacing,
internationalized
Cons: Expensive, resource hungry, overkill for small databases
Informix www.informix.com/linux
Once upon a time, Informix was the uncrowned king of Unix databases.
Although in recent years it has lost some of its royal luster, Informix
now offers tight commitment to Linux. Informix SE is a fast, reliable,
and friendly database for Linux. Informix 4GL offers a complete IDE + a
library called C-ISAM for index sequential data access.
Cons: Includes special libraries and tools, minimal database
administration
Pros: Not free, a bit old-fashioned
Sybase www.sybase.com/linux
Sybase offers several free products for Linux. The Sybase Enterprise
Database offers data integration that coordinates all information
resources on a network. SQL Anywhere is a lightweight RDBMS designed
for compact databases.
Pros: Support various types of users and needs
Cons: Some of the products aren't free; some libraries are
unsupported
DB2 www.software.ibm.com/data/db2/linux
DB2 was originally a mainframe database. Recently it was ported to
Linux. It's scalable, expandable, supports Perl and offers an interface
for Web browser administration.
Pros: Internet functionality, customizable
Cons: Feels and looks like a mainframe database, not free
Ingres II www.ingres.com
Ingres is not the latest word in the industry, but it's one of my
favorites. It's easy to use and maintain, and supports both C and Perl.
Pros: Supports Binary Large Objects and Internet publishing Cons:
antiquated, not free.
