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Home > Archive > Oracle certifications > April 2001 > What's a good database for a newbie to use?
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What's a good database for a newbie to use?
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| ccieToBe 2001-03-22, 9:04 pm |
| The term project in my Systems Analysis class requires that I use a database of some sort to complete it. The professor suggested that the database newbies use Access, but I've tried it before, and wasn't impressed. I'd rather use a more functional database so that I come away from it having learned something more useful. My question is, what would be a good choice? Basically, I'm looking for something that is more heavy duty then Access, but still has a sharp learning curve.
The only database related work that I've ever done involved extracting and sorting records from various databases (Excel, Access, DBF...) to create fax books. | |
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| I've talked to a couple people about this and it sounds like MySQL or Oracle would be the way to go. Does anyone have any thoughts on the choice between these two, or a suggestion to go with a different program? | |
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| Depending on how much time you have for the project, the learning curve for Oracle may be a little too steep. I find Access annoying, but it does use SQL and VB and can be a very powerful program. You can edit the SQL directly in a lot of cases, although Access writes very 'dirty' code and their code editors leave much to be desired.
MySQL might be a good choice if you want to learn SQL, and best of all, it's free. (So is Oracle Personal Edition, but it takes 3 days to download... )
Osborne's "The Complete SQL Refrence" includes a CD with Oracle Personal Edition, SQL Server 7, Informix, Sybase and DB2. If you want to learn SQL, it's a good book, and the CD can give you some software to play with. | |
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| Thanks for the info. I have about a month and a half to do the project and the download isn't an issue (DSL connection). Another reason I'd rather not use Access is because I want to put the entire system (IP faxing) in a FreeBSD box. It sounds like MySQL's probably the way to go. | |
| John Fansler 2001-04-24, 8:47 pm |
| Here is my two-bits.
Use Oracle Personal Edition, it is free and once you have it. You can use it for most anything (depending on how much ram you shove in your box).
The Personal Edition comes in two flavors, win98 or winNT. You can also get it for UNIX and it works fine under RED HAT 6.0, 6.1 and 6.2...
have fun.... |
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