Wow, that's a tough one. It really depends on what you want/need from
your database. What's your recoverability liability? How scalable do
you need your app? Platform/OS requirements?
Being from primarily an Oracle background (as far as DBs go), I'd say
overall "Oracle". Free? Yes! There's now a free Express Edition
("XE") currently for Linux and Winders (beta) which can be downloaded
from http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/xe/index.html
Like everything there are caveats, and I believe a big one to be that
DBD::Oracle doesn't yet play will this version of Oracle (see previous
threads on this list although I haven't been paying that close attention
to it myself since we use the full-blown Enterprise Edition). It's also
limited in DB size and what features are supported. See the above link
for more info.
I've also used MySQL 4.x at home. Being an Oracle-type, I found it to
be lacking in backup/recovery as well as scalability, but my tests
admittedly weren't very scientific. For home use, I've switched my
MySQL DBs to PostgreSQL 8.0 (haven't taken the 8.1 leap yet).
PostgreSQL? Quickly, it's as close feature-wise to "enterprise" as
full-blown pay-up-the-gazoo Oracle as I've seen. Plus, you can write
your DB procs in Perl if you want. :)
DBI-wise, I have no real preference for any of the three. SQL-wise, I
much prefer Oracle, with PostgreSQL coming in a close second, with MySQL
off in a distant 3rd. Probably because the syntax of PostgreSQL is very
close to Oracle. :)
I know this e-mail is way too generic to be of any real use, but thought
I'd chime in on some areas that might be important for your decision
like recoverability, scalability and flexibility.
HTH! GL!
Rich
-----Original Message-----
From: John Armstrong [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 7:02 PM
To: dbi-users@perl.org
Cc: cgiapp@lists.erlbaum.net
Subject: What's the best "free" DB for a web-based app?
Hi - I'm soon to be doing a Perl app on the Internet, that'll need
database. We want the db to be as "free" as possible, but still fully
multi-user (web-based). Would the best route be MySql on Linux? Random
access files? Something else? We want no licensing obligations (no
Oracle,
Sequal Server, etc.). We want to go with Perl because it's the best
programming language invented by humans.
