Park Your Data Here - Database Programs for Linux Searcy AR

Posted by : Eric Foster-Johnson

As befits an operating system run by businesses mostly as a server, Linux makes an excellent system for storing your data. Linux runs equally well as a desktop environment, but in the business realm Linux more often appears in the back end, not on users' desktops.

All of the major commercial databases, except those from Microsoft, run on Linux. WINE, a technology that allows users to run many Windows applications under Linux, doesn't yet support Microsoft's SQL Server or Access databases, unfortunately.

Oracle, the database market leader, has especially promoted Linux. Part of this is in counter to IBM, the force behind DB2 and Informix, and a major competitor to Oracle. IBM has made a huge effort to sell Linux solutions for application servers, databases, server hardware, and services. IBM even ported Linux to their mainframe systems. Sybase, another major DB vendor, shouldn't be discounted either. An early convert to Linux, Sybase, offers database and application server products that run on Linux.

SAP DB and Firebird, both cross-platform databases, run on Linux as well. Both are former commercial products now available as free open-source incarnations. Both have attracted dedicated user communities. Other cross-platform databases include four written in Java. HSQLDB and McKoi SQL are both open-source applications. Pointbase and Cloudscape are commercial products. All require a Java Runtime Engine, or JRE, to run.

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