>> > Is the team planning to add support for other database engines, so
>> > that FLEx will work with other database engines as well as SQL  
>> Server?
>> > Or has a decision been made to replace one database engine with  
>> another?

>> We have not yet made a decision about what database engine(s) to  
>> support, except that we know SqlServer will not be the only one  
>> because it is not available on Linux and supporting Linux is one of  
>> the goals of the changes we are planning. We hope to pick an engine  
>> that will replace SqlServer on both platforms, be much easier to  
>> install, and give a similar level of data security.

> We also are interested that it perform well, and the Linux guys are  
> particularly interested in using an engine that uses little memory.  
> (SQL Server was really meant for servers, not laptops, and is a  
> memory pig.) Getting an open-source database is also a high  
> priority. Fortunately open-source databases have come a long, long  
> ways in the past decade, and we have a wide range to pick from.

> To more closely answer David's original question, we could decide to  
> use one database engine for some types of hardware such as low-power  
> devices, another database engine for the more common Windows  
> laptops, and another engine for a web server (someday maybe).  
> However, using three engines instead of one means tripling the  
> effort for programming, installation, and maintenance. We can make  
> better use of programming time if we could find one that does  
> everything we need. That may not be possible in the end, but we're  
> trying. I have put in a couple weeks of research on the topic, if  
> anyone's interested.

> The "rewiring" we have in mind should allow us to plug in different  
> databases, and see how they work. It also means that someone really  
> wants a different engine than the one we chose, has sufficient  
> ambition and ability, and hopefully(!) good reason, he can swap out  
> the engine for the one of his preference.

> More technically, one of the goals is to remove the object-
> relational impedance mismatch.

> I can provide more details to anyone interested.

> Steve