Free DB options under python

[Alex Martelli]

"Cees de Groot" <cg at gaia.cdg.acriter.nl> wrote in message
news:8mo8ft$108$1 at gaia.cdg.acriter.nl...
> Aahz Maruch <aahz at netcom.com> said:
> >Depends on what you need.  Probably the best/simplest all-around
> >solution is mySQL.  Other options include Gadfly at the low end and
> >PostgreSQL at the high end.
>
> Please, could we abstain from calling mySQL and "best" in the same
context?
> It's a very fast storage engine with SQL, but lacks essentials to call
> it a database (transactions, for example). PostgreSQL maybe costs a tiny
> bit more trouble to install, but for that price you've got a real
database.
>
> (put mySQL in the same ballpark as MS Access' database engine, PostgreSQL
> with SQL Server, and you get the picture).

This calls to mind -- other free, or at least freely-redistributable, good
relational databases exist.  MSDE (freely downloadable/packageable/
redistributable if you own Visual Studio Professional, or Office Developer)
is a pre-packaged SQL Server without all the administration tools for the
end-user (your app has to supply such tools itself), tuned to be optimal for
about 5 concurrent accesses (i.e., a small workgroup) and of course it only
runs on Windows platform.  Borland's "Interbase" has recently been
open-sourced, and I don't know much about it, but it should be a portable
and full-fledged RDB in a class quite comparable to SQL Server too; has
anyone tried it with Python yet...?


Alex