One of My Favorite Databases – PostgreSQL
About eight years ago I was doing a project at the place I used to work and I needed to have a linux-compatible database that I could use that had C/C++ and Java bindings. At the time, MySQL was very popular, but when I looked at it I was struck by the lack of foreign keys and support for stored procedures. PostgreSQL had both of these, and while it wasn't as fast as MySQL, speed wasn't as important to me then as completeness of the database features. Times have passed, and MySQL has gotten better, new databases for linux systems have come into being, and PostgreSQL is still going strong. I've never regretted the decision I made those many years ago.
Both MySQL and PostgreSQL have corporate backing now, and I'm glad for each as the competition is good for the users. Most of the time, my PostgreSQL databases just hum in the background, but today I'm messing with one and it's really a much a joy to use today as I ever remember it being.
Everything is there that I need. And it's fast. Sure, it may not beat a clustered Oracle installation at 22.5 million rows, but then again, when I get a database that big, I'm sure I'll have the money to get something equally as expensive, and possibly it'll be PostgreSQL on it's clustering solution. But for the databases I'm using - under 100,000 rows per table, this is more than enough. It's fast, dynamically configuring, and it simply just works.
If only more commercial products did that. PostgreSQL... get it. You'll be glad you did.