This could be cool. I used to work for Sybase as a consulting DBA (among other things). I haven’t seen a real database since then, mainly because I now work in academia where database needs don’t really warrant spending thousands of dollars on database software. We get by just fine with PostgreSQL and MySQL (which are free, but less mature, database systems). If you’re a DBA aching to have a real database that *isn’t* Oracle on Linux — for free — I would urge you, as a former DBA who has dealt with Sybase, DB2, MSSQL Server and Oracle, to give Sybase a shot….
I was wondering when Sybase was going to get around to this. They’ve been offering demo downloads of ASE (their flagship database) for a long time, but it never seemed quite right to me (I had always run it under Solaris, and once under AIX). However, I haven’t seen it in quite some time, and I doubt Sybase would push this out the door and put their name on the line to the Linux community if it didn’t work. I wish them luck.
There’s only one small catch, which I don’t really see as a real problem: you can only run it if it’s on a machine with 2GB RAM or less, and one CPU, and the free license is limited to 5GB of data storage. The free software and even some Linux zealots will scoff at Sybase’s offer. Real DBAs will see value here. Real DBAs who can live their entire data-lives within those limitations will be in heaven.