MySQL vs DB2 Express-C [closed]

Question

I came to know about the Free DB2 Express C today. I have a few questions about it. Can someone please tell me

• How does Free DB2 Express C compare with MySQL?
• Is it a bad idea to switch from MySQL to Express C?
• What are the restrictions on the free version? I couldn't find that information on its website.

Answer 1

DB2 is a real database with all the minimal components such as referential integrity, stored procedures, ACID, etc. and some interesting extras such as native XML. MySQL begins to adopt some of these minimal requirements for one of its storage engines, however this still remains immature. MySQL could be better than DB2 for some specific cases when transactions are not really important, such as a small web site that shows simple content.

DB2 is NOT open source, and for the version express-c you can only download the latest (most recent) version of DB2. It means, that you cannot apply patches, nor fix bugs. However, when there is a new release in the DB2 family, the express-c version is also release, so you always have access to the most recent updates (not like in Oracle, that the express version is still 10G)

The restriction in the DB2 express-c version is the memory size used (for buffer pools and other elements) and its size is 4GB. It could use only 2 cores if the machine has several ones. There is not limit for the storage or quantity of users. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/DB2/DB2+Express-C+FAQ

When you business needs grow, you can update to another version in the DB2 family easily, because your platform (applications) are already designed to work with DB2. DB2 is good for very small database, and for very bigs database with several TBs.

MySQL is Open Source, and it was bought by Sun, which was bought by Oracle. Some days ago, several Open Sources projects maintained by Oracle were finished, and they will only work with the payed versions; such as OpenSolaris and OpenOffice. We do not know the future of MySQL with Oracle as owner. In the other side, IBM has been working hard with the Open Source (Eclipse, Apache Derby), and in the last years, there has been a continuous effort to use DB2 express-c, so it seems that IBM will continue this way.

"DB2 is DB2 is DB2"