Considering FOSS Databases
Doghouse – Databases

There are many FOSS databases available inexpensively today, and they might serve new projects well.
Recently a friend started taking a postgraduate course in software engineering, and part of that course was the topic of databases. My friend had learned a little about them in his undergraduate degree in computer engineering, but not that much. Perhaps he would have learned more if he had studied "Computer Science."
When I started at my first full-time job after university, databases as we know them were just getting started. System R at IBM and Ingres at the University of California, Berkeley, were research projects, trying to determine the best way to store and access data. Often funded by research grants from the government, tapes of the code were available at a nominal charge.
If you did not use a database to store your data, you had to deal with various issues such as backing up your data to get a consistent view of your total data, different byte and word size, different endianness types (little endian vs. big endian), loss of data due to power failures and system crashes due to lack of journaling, pulling large amounts of data over the very slow networking of the day, doing transaction processing (which is often used in business), and a variety of other issues. Eventually databases could also store and run complicated functions inside the engine itself, locating the processing right next to the data.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.
-
LibreOffice 25.2 Has Arrived
If you've been hoping for a release that offers more UI customizations, you're in for a treat.
-
TuxCare Has a Big AlmaLinux 9 Announcement in Store
TuxCare announced it has successfully completed a Security Technical Implementation Guide for AlmaLinux OS 9.
-
First Release Candidate for Linux Kernel 6.14 Now Available
Linus Torvalds has officially released the first release candidate for kernel 6.14 and it includes over 500,000 lines of modified code, making for a small release.
-
System76 Refreshes Meerkat Mini PC
If you're looking for a small form factor PC powered by Linux, System76 has exactly what you need in the Meerkat mini PC.
-
Gnome 48 Alpha Ready for Testing
The latest Gnome desktop alpha is now available with plenty of new features and improvements.
-
Wine 10 Includes Plenty to Excite Users
With its latest release, Wine has the usual crop of bug fixes and improvements, along with some exciting new features.
-
Linux Kernel 6.13 Offers Improvements for AMD/Apple Users
The latest Linux kernel is now available, and it includes plenty of improvements, especially for those who use AMD or Apple-based systems.
-
Gnome 48 Debuts New Audio Player
To date, the audio player found within the Gnome desktop has been meh at best, but with the upcoming release that all changes.
-
Plasma 6.3 Ready for Public Beta Testing
Plasma 6.3 will ship with KDE Gear 24.12.1 and KDE Frameworks 6.10, along with some new and exciting features.