(trickykid - I wasn't sure if this should go in Software or Linux-General. Sorry if you have to move it.)

Hey all,

I have a quick question.

I have a client that would like me to build a database for them. The client has about 10 people in the whole company. I can use any software of my choice. The client is currently using Microsoft Office 2000 which includes Access 2000.

I would love to build a database for them with open souce software, and then install something on their PC's so they can use the database. I know that there are MySQL, Postgres, etc...but I thought those were compairable to Microsoft SQL. Does the Linux world have an Access type of database program?

Would you guys just build the database in Access or use something open source ?

Also, what on earth would you charge to build a database? I usually charge $50 per hour for desktop stuff and $100 per hour for server/network stuff.

Would I charge like $250 for the database or what? It would have I think about 6 fields and maybe like 15,000 records.

Any suggestions? All help appreciated THanks!

Actually fits perfectly here in Linux - General.

Wow..........should I assume that I should go with Access?

Hmm....

Head to OpenOffice.org. You may be able to save them even more using OpenOffice with the built in database tools.

http://api.openoffice.org/docs/Devel...ets=oi3op5z3g2
http://dba.openoffice.org/testcase/t...p5z3g2#general

RO

It doesn't seem like there is an Open Source Database Tool like Access. It says you can open databases and stuff but it doesn't look like you can build them like you can with Access.

Hmm...

And........what would you charge? About 6 Fields and 15,000 records.

So........I guess it's a bust?

Nothing comes close to Access?

Give them MySQL. To administer the DB give them phpmyadmin. (you will also have to run apache). But you will be stuck on how to generate reports from MySQL. I guess you will have to write some scripts to generate reports.

Wow...

Well Thanks everyone. I'll just stick to MS Access 2002/2003. I am not going to run MySQL, Apache, and phpmyadmin just do do what Access can do by itself.

Hmm...

I really do appreciate your replies. Don't think I"m discounting them. I just don't think there is anything else out there right now to compete with Access.

I realize that MySQL competes with SQL, but that's about it.

THanks,
Whitehat.

I would really not recommend using access unless the latest version is much better than the version available a few years ago. I had the misfortune of using it once

Seemed to work fine for 2 or 3 users with fairly light traffic. But, once we went over five users and/or the usage went up, the response time became unbearably slow. It may have improved since I used it though. It has been a few years

I had the bad experience of having Access fall apart when used by more than two or three users. I tried to convince to the client to backend with SQL Server but he wouldn't. Someone else was called in and I don't know the final outcome. I do know that the client bought a few new computers and could only get a later version of Access, so we were stuck with maintaining two versions of the system or buying seven or eight new licenses! The data files were compatible but the routines needed some conversion.
Borland's Delphi works along the same lines as Access, though the learning curve is a little steeper. Kylix (the Linux version of Delphi) isn't solid. I used Paradox tables with Delphi but wasn't satisfied with them (and dBASE tables are worse--have to be reindexed often). Now that there is a way to use Postgres under Windows, that might be the best way to go. But if you try to use Access for 10 users, you'll be sorry! It just isn't an industrial-strength database--more of a toy.

For a small installation, look at SQLite (Google for link). Small footprint, no administration (is its own server), uses standard SQL commands. There is a way to use Python instead of C++ (easier to learn) called PySQLite, which is more heavily documented than SQLite itself. Then there is PyQt, a way to access Qt (strong fro GUI programming) with Python. And the price is right!