Free alternatives to SQL Server

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news.microsoft.com

Hi,

There are a few free databases that can be used with .NET, like MySQL,
PostgreSQL and Firebird (and others?). I would like to know which one
you would prefer, and why.

It would be a pre if the SQL syntax would resemble SQL Server's syntax
because I'm already a bit familiar with that. The database should
support stored procedures, triggers and transactions. I know MySQL
supports stored procedures in 5.0 (beta). The database has to support
Windows OS, but the ones I mentioned all do.

Also I would like to know more about the quality of the available .NET
data providers (free and commercial) for these databases.

I guess these questions have been asked before, so in that case links to
those discussions, FAQ's or websites are also welcome.

Kind regards,

George
 
news.microsoft.com said:
Hi,

There are a few free databases that can be used with .NET, like MySQL,
PostgreSQL and Firebird (and others?). I would like to know which one
you would prefer, and why.

It would be a pre if the SQL syntax would resemble SQL Server's syntax
because I'm already a bit familiar with that. The database should
support stored procedures, triggers and transactions. I know MySQL
supports stored procedures in 5.0 (beta). The database has to support
Windows OS, but the ones I mentioned all do.

Also I would like to know more about the quality of the available .NET
data providers (free and commercial) for these databases.

I guess these questions have been asked before, so in that case links to
those discussions, FAQ's or websites are also welcome.

Kind regards,

George
Click to expand...

AFAIK MySQL is free for personal use, commercial use needs a paid
license (albeit it cheaper than MS).
 
Hi George,
MSDE will be the best option if you require a free database and it meets all
your requirements. MSDE supports stored procedures, triggers and
transaction. It works great on windows and you don't need to worry about the
quality of the data providers cus you will be using the same sql client dot
Net data provider which you use for MS SQL server. MySQL 5.0 is sitll in
beta and they have yet fully implemented stored procedures and triggers
best,
Subin
GAPS Technologies.
 
news.microsoft.com said:
Hi,

There are a few free databases that can be used with .NET, like MySQL,
PostgreSQL and Firebird (and others?). I would like to know which one
Click to expand...
you would prefer, and why.
Click to expand...

Ingres and MaxDB (formally called SAP DB)

PS: don't even think of MySQL :)
It would be a pre if the SQL syntax would resemble SQL Server's syntax
because I'm already a bit familiar with that. The database should
support stored procedures, triggers and transactions. I know MySQL
supports stored procedures in 5.0 (beta). The database has to support
Click to expand...
Windows OS, but the ones I mentioned all do.

Also I would like to know more about the quality of the available ..NET
data providers (free and commercial) for these databases.

I guess these questions have been asked before, so in that case links to
those discussions, FAQ's or websites are also welcome.
Click to expand...

As I know none of these DBs have syntax similiar to Transact-SQL.
PostgreSQL's seems to be PL/SQL-like, but Firebird's syntax is rather
weird and its statement terminator is confusing (partially due to its
almost-unusable CLI).

All of PostgreSQL, Firebird, Ingres, and MaxDB support sp, triggers and
transactions.

PostgreSQL supports a lot of cool features such as inheritance and
Python binding; Firebird has some very good GUIs (ex: IB Expert); dunno
about Ingres and MaxDB... They both are Oracle-like terrible things.

I had used Firebird's ADO.NET provider for several weeks, not bad.
 
AFAIK MySQL is free for personal use, commercial use needs a paid
license (albeit it cheaper than MS).
Click to expand...

Yes, it is - but MySQL is *NOT* a full-fledged database, really - it's
lacking lots of essential features, such as stored procedures,
triggers and more.

Marc
 
Morten said:
There is also the MSDE which is a lightweight limited version of MS SQL
Server 2000.
Click to expand...

I know about MSDE, but I forgot to mention that the alternative database
I'm looking for also has to support enough simultaneous users, and
larger databases than 2GB.
 
Aquila said:
PostgreSQL's seems to be PL/SQL-like, but Firebird's syntax is rather
weird and its statement terminator is confusing (partially due to its
almost-unusable CLI).

PostgreSQL supports a lot of cool features such as inheritance and
Python binding; Firebird has some very good GUIs (ex: IB Expert); dunno
about Ingres and MaxDB... They both are Oracle-like terrible things.

I had used Firebird's ADO.NET provider for several weeks, not bad.
Click to expand...

So it looks like you would prefer PostgreSQL?
 
Marc said:
Yes, it is - but MySQL is *NOT* a full-fledged database, really - it's
lacking lots of essential features, such as stored procedures,
triggers and more.

Marc
Click to expand...

With MySQL 5 stored procs and triggers are available. How well they work
I have no idea :)
 
George said:
So it looks like you would prefer PostgreSQL?
Click to expand...

In fact I prefer Firebird, because it works fine even when the RAM is
very small (256MB here, with lots of desktop apps running), and its
installation is simple and transparent - just copy the files and
(optionally) setup environment variables to change the location of lock
files and security db. I also contributed the installation steps to run
Firebird as non-privileged user.

PS: I hate setup.exe and msi installer, but PostgreSQL for windows just
uses it...
 
With MySQL 5 stored procs and triggers are available. How well they work
I have no idea :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but MySQL 5 is at best in beta release - if not still alpha -
not the type of system you want to put your production database
onto....

Marc
 
Marc said:
Yeah, but MySQL 5 is at best in beta release - if not still alpha -
not the type of system you want to put your production database
onto....

Marc
Click to expand...

Ah ok. I just glanced over the website to see if the features were there
or not. If it's still in that stage, then you are absolutely right.
 
C-Services Holland b.v. said:
AFAIK MySQL is free for personal use, commercial use needs a paid
license (albeit it cheaper than MS).
Click to expand...

According to an interview by Infoworld of the MySQL CEO, companies are
allowed to use MySQL for free if they like (although licenses are for
sale at the MySQL shop). Only services have to be paid for. Or do I
misunderstand the following conversation?

*****************
InfoWorld: Do you think that corporations have gotten to the point now
where instead of looking at open source as too much of a fly-by-night
deal, they're now asking if they can get something free via open source?

Mickos: Yes, they do, of course, and they come to us and say, "We love
your product but we don't want to pay anything."

InfoWorld: And what do you tell them?

Mickos: We say, sure, but if you need any services, then you have to pay
for them.
*****************

Source:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/05...com/article/05/04/26/HNmikcosinterview_1.html

George
 
I know about MSDE, but I forgot to mention that the alternative database
I'm looking for also has to support enough simultaneous users, and
larger databases than 2GB.
Click to expand...

The coming SQL Server 2005 Express - which will fill the role now taken by
MSDE 2000 - takes out the query governor and increases the max database
size to 4GB. I'm really looking forward to it.
 
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