[james.cameron@snowandrock]

The day has finally arrived when I have the oppatunity to roll out a linux system to replace the cluncky MS system that is currently running on our PCs however I have been out of the open-source game for a few years now and could do with some guidance on the best systems to use.

At the moment we are running on Windows XP with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and my manager is keen that the usability of the OS should remain as similar as possible and that the database system should be able to receive, process and handle queries in the same way as SQL Server (as much as possible) and that there should be as few changes of SQL Syntax as possible.

Can anyone recommend a good SQL Server system and a stable user-friendly distro of Linux that would meet this?

Thanks,
Jim C

[modi123_1]

Not to question the direction you are going, but why are you pushing to update to a system that, from what it sounds like, no one there is able to support off the get go? I hope it's not for reasons like "OMG wind00z is teh suck! linux ftw!" mentality... that tends to be bad for business.

The green horn choice of system would be something like Unbuntu and MYSQL. Throw in something like LAMP (installs apache, mysql and php in one go) on there there and you are mostly set.

Still, I am curious on the 'why'. Clearly with XP and MSSQL 2000 you got your mileage out of both... a new box, MSServer 2003r2, and mssql 2005/2008 isn't that bad of a cost.

[Atli]

The two popular open-source SQL database systems would be MySQL and PostgreSQL. If your MSSQL syntax is fairly "standard" then it shouldn't be to much trouble to convert to either. You won't escape doing some changes though. None of the three is exactly "compatible" with the others, especially if you are using procedures and such.

One thing to note is that MySQL has no schema concept, which both MSSQL and Postgres have. So if you like to do stuff like SELECT * FROM dbo.table_name, then that would be a problem in MySQL. In MySQL the dbo would be read as a database name, whereas in Postgres and MSSQL that would be read as a schema within a database.

[james.cameron@snowandrock]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I think PostgreSQL is probably looking to be the best for compatability's sake and Ubunto looks like a nice stable distro.

If it helps to set your mind at rest Modi123_1, I have worked heavily with Linux in the past and one of the key reasons for bringing me into these projects was apparently the hope that we could move accross to open-source eventually (having been one of the lead developers of Lapwing Linux in my time). As I said in my original post though, I have been out of the game for a few years and with the speed that distros come and go it seemed wise to get some advice rather than plundging in.