I'm trying to write a small accounting app, mainly for my dad's use. His PC is running Windows 98 (and upgrading is pretty much out of the question due to technical concerns as well as logistics). Java 4 and 5 still seem to work with Windows 98, but I'm totally lost about the DB part. Does anybody know a good, up-to-date database that installs and runs on Windows 98 and has a JDBC driver available? Of course, the driver should work with a Java version older than 1.6, for example no generics or automatic unboxing or other recent features.
+3
A:
Derby is always a possibility - it works both embedded into the application and as a stand alone database, and can be downloaded as an extension to java 5. Just a note - if this is a small standalone app, then Derby will work great. I cannot attest to it's performance beyond this, although I have heard positive reviews of it from co-workers.
aperkins
2009-09-07 17:27:16
Well yeah, but the 'supported systems' part on their webpage only mentions the NT family of Windowses, so I'm not really sure...This also applies to the other answers I got.
varzan
2009-09-07 17:29:51
afaik, it is entirely within Java, so if java is supported, then it should be supported too.
aperkins
2009-09-07 17:59:59
Since Derby (and HSQLDB and H2 and JavaDB) is a pure Java database you should be perfectly fine as long as the required Java version runs on your target OS.
Joachim Sauer
2009-09-07 18:00:45
Note, I found that "newer" Javas could not debug on WIndows 98 (that was a couple of years ago)
Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
2009-09-07 18:20:31
I'm going for 1.4, sounds pretty reasonable and it's already installed on my dad's PC. Do you classify that as "new"? (I wouldn't, I remember playing with it 5 years ago)
varzan
2009-09-07 18:36:36
A:
vector
2009-09-07 17:30:31
+1
A:
HypersonicDB or Derby seem like the logical choices, but any pure java database that runs on Java 1.5 seems doable. As for your concern that Windows 98 is not officially supported for these databases, Windows 98 is not supported by Microsoft anymore, so it will certainly not be directly supported by the underlying database. In a pure java implementation, the main thing to be worried about is that the file sizes don't exceed the Windows 98 (2GB?) limit. A pure java implementation that runs on a JVM should be fine if the JVM runs on Windows 98.
Yishai
2009-09-07 17:43:36
+1
A:
I'll get downvoted for this, but MSDE 2000 is still available for download.
Be forewarned though, installation is not as easy as the newer versions of MS SQL Server Express editions. You can have trouble connecting to it, before even doing anything useful, so install it veeeery carefully (didn't I warn you). But once you are up and running, it is "usually" (ahem) going to save you some time (not a lot though).
And JDBC support? Get the MS SQL Server 2000 driver.
Vineet Reynolds
2009-09-07 17:47:30
When one has squeezed every ounce of patience out of oneself for a college project, original details are bound to be remembered :P
Vineet Reynolds
2009-09-07 18:10:28
+1
A:
Firebird. It can be installed as service or you can use it in embeded mode.
serge_bg
2009-09-07 18:20:53
A service for Win 98 will be hard but it can work as an application :P
Hugues Van Landeghem
2009-09-07 20:09:55