I need a recommendation for a database program under Unbuntu.
I've been using Visual Fox (and its predecessors) under
Windoze for years, and have liked it a lot. But it was not
written by Microsoft - it originally came from another s/w
guy, who was bought by Microsoft. Of course M/S has slowly
ruined the program. Now it is crippled under Vista.

So I need something similar to run under Ubuntu. Any recommendations
would be greatly appreciated. My current needs are not really very
great. I'm retired now, and have only two main uses for a d/b
program. One is to run the kids baseball league I operate, and
the other is to maintain a personal contact list. So mainly I
just need a quick and easy way to make structured queries. But
a good programming language would be nice to have, similar to
what Fox offered. Sure would appreciate any suggestions on what to
change over to.

Have you tried the Open Office database?

I used mysql for everything until recently. Until that whole thing goes
crazy, I still recommend that.

I use php for all my work but there are others too.

Second the nomination. I migrated from TRS-80 Profile to
DBase II to Dbase III to dBASE IV to Clipper to Foxbase
to MS Access and finally to Open Office, and I can imagine
what you're accustomed to. The transition from Visual Fox
ought to be fairly straightforward.

Why not download the latest Open Office, it has Base included that does
not come with the OO in Ubuntu 9

I didn't yet migrate to 9.04, and my 8.10 installation
(updated from 8.04, in turn from 7) did include
OO Database. This command:

apt-get install openoffice.org

informed me that I already had the latest version.

Here's a question: Add/Remove features the following
blurb in summarizing OO Database:

----------------------------------
You can extend the functionality of OpenOffice.org Base
by installing these packages:
* unixodbc: ODBC database support
* libmyodbc | odbc-postgresql | libsqliteodbc | tdsodbc | mdbtools: ODBC drivers
for:
* MySQL
* PostgreSQL
* SQLite
* MS SQL / Sybase SQL
* .mdb (JET / MS Access)
* libmysql-java | libpg-java: JDBC Drivers for:
* MySQL
* PostgreSQL

Homepage: http://www.go-oo.org
------------------------------

How would one go about installing any of those
packages? As it turns out go-oo is not clear
about that.

The database is not installed by default as it is not used as much as
the other parts. It is called openoffice.org- base. You can find it in
Synaptic by searching for database or openoffice or you can probably
install it from the terminal with: sudo apt-get install
openoffice.org- base

I assume Roy is talking about Ubuntu 9 here, as
OO Database is included in my current version
8.10 (upgraded from 8.04 and 7.10).

> as it is not used as much as the other parts.
> It is called openoffice.org- base. You can find
> it in Synaptic by searching for database or
> openoffice or you can probably install it
> from the terminal with:
>
> sudo apt-get install openoffice.org- base

I did this, even knowing I already had OO Database
installed, and have used it for a couple projects.

Here's the message I received:

-----------------------------------------
sudo apt-get install openoffice.org- base
[sudo] password ... :
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package base is a virtual package provided by:
base-files 4.0.4ubuntu2.2
You should explicitly select one to install.
E: Package base has no installation candidate
---------------------------------------------

First, is "OO base" the same as "OO Database"?
I was assuming it is, and I already have it,
and it gets updated regularly.

Assuming I still don't have "OO base" on my
system -- again, I have not yet migrated 8.10
to 9.04 -- does this message mean I should run:

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org- base-files 4.0.4ubuntu2.2

or something like that. I don't want to fool
around with it if it's not necessary. What a
cryptic message from apt-get!

On the other hand, I do wish to learn how to
install one or more of these elements (reposted
from below, where the explanation was included):

unixodbc: ODBC database support
libmyodbc | odbc-postgresql | libsqliteodbc | tdsodbc | mdbtools: ODBC drivers
for:
MySQL
PostgreSQL
SQLite
MS SQL / Sybase SQL
.mdb (JET / MS Access)
libmysql-java | libpg-java: JDBC Drivers for:
MySQL
PostgreSQL

I'm not planning on using any of this any time soon, but would like to know how
to install them as indicated in the blurb in Synaptic.

It was for my situation (9.04). I was surprised it was not in the default since
it was included in the Windows download. It worked for me.

I just followed these instructions (on my 8.10 machine) and it installed
without any oddities.

Only difference is you appear to have a space between "openoffice.org-"
and "base"

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org- base

See if cutting the space out makes any difference.

I can't connect to my .mdb files, though, that would be a really useful
thing if there's a way of doing that as you suggest.

Have you installed the package "mdbtools"?

From the openoffice.org-base blurb in Synaptic:

You can extend the functionality of OpenOffice.org Base by installing these
packages:

* unixodbc: ODBC database support
* libmyodbc | odbc-postgresql | libsqliteodbc | tdsodbc | mdbtools: ODBC
drivers for:
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- SQLite
- MS SQL / Sybase SQL
- *.mdb (JET / MS Access)
* libmysql-java | libpg-java: JDBC Drivers
for:
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL

Open Synaptic Package Manager from System--> Administration

and search for "mdbtools." There it is.

I tried removing the space as you suggested

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org-base

and now receive the same message as I did
with:

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org

which is:

"openoffice.org-base is already the newest version."

OK, that's what I thought. Apparently Ubuntu dropped
the OO Database program before 9.04 but after 7.10,
because I first installed Ubuntu 5, then started
fresh with 7.10 and continued migrating forward
each time (until the present) that I had the
opportunity. It may have been part of 7.10 or 8.04
but not 8.10. Anyway, for anyone who needs it,
here it is, thanks all. (comment below)


How to do so from oo-go.org is not evident, nor
from the Ubuntu/Debian repositories.