after fiddling with mysql a bit, you normally want to use a real database. The limitations of mysql are numerous: no views, no triggers, no stored procedures and so on. For very simple applications its ok, but sql is more than just a select statement. Therefore someday you move over to oracle. Oracle software normally sucks, but their sql server rocks. Its very stable, scalable, unix oriented stuff.
Some do’s and don’ts:
– never run oracle on windows. Its not stable (even less stable than windows itself). It is just not a good combination. You need to reboot it all the time (at least daily) due to memory leaks. Prepare for the worst if you’re following this path.
– Never use other oracle software than their database server. Oracle forms? a joke. Oracle designer? sucks. Oracle installations: Always a pain. I have *NEVER* seen an oracle installation procedure without severe errors. (and that means over 7 years of oracle installtion history)
– Oracle databases are memory hungry. Start with 1Gb, then go up.
– After install, immediately tune up the server parameters. The defaults are not usable. Make your shared pool at least 500M for a 1Gb server, use large dbblocks (16k at least) If you don’t do this, only 2 users can log in