Why open-source software will (or will not) soon dominate the field of database management tools

Why open-source software will soon dominate

the field of database management tools

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INTRODUCTION

Much of what we see and do in the internet today depends primarily on databases that allow retrieval and storage of data . Database management tools that are either powered by proprietary software or open-source software . Open-source software is HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Computer_software " \o "Computer software computer software whose HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Source_code " \o "Source code " source code is available under a HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /License

\o "License " copyright license that permits users to study , change and improve the software , and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form (Wikipedia , 2006 . The term open source became popular when Linux operating system such as Red Hat began to penetrate the personal computer market . The question then arises of whether the open-source software will soon dominate the field of database management . It has often been said that the battle for dominance between open-source and proprietary database software is like the battle between good and evil

ANALYSIS

Existing Open-Source Database Software

The two most popular open-source database management software are MySQL a lightning-quick database with roots in Sweden , and PostgreSQL , the latest version of a venerable database project (Postgres ) that began at the University of California , Berkeley (Weyner , 2001 . These software are commonly included free together with other packages . The packages includes open-source license and can easily be obtained free from websites or from supporting firms with minimum replication fee Open-source software comes with availability of the software code to the user which makes them attractive to developers . Open-source database management software are low cost alternative for expensive software such as Microsoft SQL or Oracle . Presently , these two software have already gain a significant portion of the whole database management tool usage According to Weyner (2001 , many Web sites , including Yahoo and Slashdot , depend upon open-source databases like MySQL to store articles and comments . Open-source software includes free distribution of source code making them available to any interested software developer for testing or modification

Advantages /Disadvantages of Open-Source Software

Open-source software gain more reliability because of the fact that virtually they are developed and tested by an infinite number of developers . Any developer interested can easily get the code for free and study it for whatever purpose . It is necessary that database management software should be free from failure . Otherwise a great number of important data will be lost and the value of these data would equal to a significant monetary loss for the company . Of course the other major advantage is cost , since they are normally distributed for free , there is no need to pay for the software , the cost is limited to the minimum manpower required to install and maintain it . Although , due to the absence of a focused company open-source software normally suffers from the lack of support and limited documentation . According to Robert Beer , a London-based programmer who identifies himself as a "long-term Oracle DBA...