Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition.

This scaled-down edition of SQL Server continues Microsoft´s tradition of making the lower end of its SQL Server product line available at no cost to interested parties. These products, previously called the Desktop Edition, have been available for several years. While they are not open source, Microsoft allows them to be used and distributed freely. This embeddable version of SQL Server, however, does have several constraints: databases are limited to 4GB (whereas Cloudscape can use all available disk space); and it will run on only one processor (whereas Cloudscape runs in the JVM, which is not limited to a preset number of processor). In addition, of course, the Microsoft product runs only on Windows operating systems. Microsoft Access 2003. Bundled in Office 2003, Access is in reality an interface builder, which is wrapped around Microsoft´s Jet Database Engine. This engine works well for simple database activities and it supports a subset of the SQL standard. However, it lacks transactional capabilities, as well as many features associated with relational databases. Moreover, Microsoft has many times revised the format of Access databases, meaning that upgrading to new releases of the product has required substantial conversion effort on the part of developers and customers. This practice of changing formats at will means that developers choosing Access today do not know whether the next release will saddle their customers or their colleagues with an undesirable transitional effort. In addition, of course, Access is not free, not open source, and not Java.

Updated On: 05.05.26