My adventures with DB

First step

I was introduced to MS access when I was about 12 years old. To be frank I understand nothing then.

Rebirth

My 2nd introduction to DB was when I was 24 to Oracle. since then I have been studying DBs.

Following is solely my opinion and I do not recommend anyone to follow them. Of course no liability what so ever will be admitted.

MS Access

Our little friend. The best place to get started with DB.

Pros:
1. Intuitive interface
2. Easy imports and exports to other file formats.
3. Easy installation
4. No maintenance

Cons:
1. Poor SQL interface
2. Cannot be used as fully pledged DB server


MySQL
The free guy with lot of talents

Pros:
1. Free
2. Production level DB server
2. Easy to install

Cons:
1. No built GUI


Oracle

Pros:
1. Production level
2. Free version is available

Cons:
1. Messy to maintain.
2. Messy to get started
3. No built in GUI


DB interfaces

DB interfaces add GUI to oracle and mySQL servers

Toad for mySQL

Pros:
1. Free
2. Easy installation
3. Intuitive interface

Cons:
1. One query at a time
2. Importing data from other file formats is bit poor.

Toad for Oracle

Pros:
1. Good functionality
2. Concurrent connections
3. Lot of tools to manage the DB

Cons:
1. Cluttered window. Not even slightly intuitive
2. Free version is a crippled version


SQL developer

Pros:
1. Free
2. Nice object browser
3. Very intuitive interface

Cons:
1. Support only xls and csv file imports

PL/SQL developper

Pros:
1. Intuitive interface

Cons:
1. Lower level support for maintenance