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up vote 3 down vote favorite

I need a free RDBMS to install in my Windows 7 machine.

Following are the required features

  1. Light-weight
  2. Works on 32-bit operating system
  3. No need to install Microsoft.Net framework
  4. Easy to connect from Java / C++ application
  5. For amateur use - Need only basic functionality (CRUD operations)
  6. Good technical support through forums
  7. Reasonably Pouplar

What is the RDBMS that caters these needs?

Note: I think, MySQL needs .Net framework

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2  
You are aware that Windows 7 comes with .NET framework 3.5 included? So unless a product needs .NET 4.0, you won't need to install the .NET framework to use it. – Carson63000 Jul 23 '12 at 6:51
@Carson63000 When I tried MySQL it asked for .Net Framework 4.0 – Lijo Jul 23 '12 at 6:52
1  
see tinysql jepstone.net/tinySQL – pandu Jul 23 '12 at 8:38
2  
What exactly is the problem with installing .NET 4.0? MySQL is probably the best answer to the rest of your requirement and trivial to install on windows with the web platform installer (which will require .NET 4.0) – Murph Jul 23 '12 at 9:16
1  
Even without installing .NET4 SQLCE should be installed on there already. If not you could install SQLLite but a preinstalled minimal DBMS does Win7 come with. – Rig Jul 23 '12 at 10:57

6 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

As an alternative to SQLite, you could try Firebird.

It is (very) lightweight, works with 32 bit / 64 bit machines, and doesn't require .Net. It has a fairly mainstream Java connector, and you can use it from C++ via ODBC. According to their own counts, it has in the region of 1 million developers using it. Their features page sums it up fairly nicely.

Interstingly, you can choose to install it as a standalone DB server, or embed it in your application, which means it can fill the area between SQLite and the "heavier" DBs like PostgreSQL.

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up vote 27 down vote

I'd recommend sqlite. It's extremely well written and is maintained to a high standard. It's used in many production applications including firefox.

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Thanks. Will it work on 32-bit operating system? – Lijo Jul 23 '12 at 6:59
3  
SQLite is a library that you embed into your application. This is a lighter weight approach than having a full blown server. I believe it will work equally fine on 64-bit or 32-bit systems. – dan_waterworth Jul 23 '12 at 7:02
2  
Yes SQLite works fine on any bit-ness. If you need to consider heavy multi-user use, I'd look for something else though. – Alan B Jul 23 '12 at 8:20
1  
+1 for SQLite. It might be worthwhile to mention that having many threads attempt to write to the same SQLite DB is probably a bad idea. – Daniel B Jul 24 '12 at 13:06
up vote 7 down vote

Consider SQLite. It is light-weight, stand-alone, easy to connect to, and very popular. It doesn't require .NET, and you can connect to it with Java and C++.

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up vote 4 down vote

Never used it but HSQLDB, is a embeddable Java SQL RDBMS. I guess the embedded installation is quite lightweight (avoiding you to install a service, manage users, passwords, permissions ...).

http://www.hsqldb.org/doc/1.8/guide/ch01.html

and there is H2:

http://www.h2database.com/html/main.html

On this site, there is a table comparaing HSQLDB, H2, Derby, MySQL and Postgre.

http://www.h2database.com/html/features.html#comparison

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up vote 2 down vote

Normally I'd recommend PostgreSQL, but it's kind of heavyweight. For your situation I'd recommend something like Apache Derby or (as others have mentioned) SQLLite.

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up vote 1 down vote

Another option could be SQL Server Express. It's not as lightweight as SQLite, but as a derivative of the commercial product there's a lot of knowledge available.

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I hesitate to downvote - but it does (in its current incarnations) have a rather substantial .NET requirement being Microsoft SQL Server Express.. – Murph Jul 23 '12 at 9:21
AFACIT it doesn't require a .Net install on Windows 7 – MSalters Jul 23 '12 at 13:15
1  
true of 2008 R2 (I was surprised!) but looks like 2012 needs .NET 4.0 – Murph Jul 23 '12 at 20:22

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