Hello, I have been reading TDWTF for a few months now.
I recently started a position as a Junior programmer at small (but growing fast) manufacturing plant. Our IT department consists of 3 people (including myself).
About 4 years ago one of the owners developed an application that is used throughout the whole company, everything from managing punch in/out in for workers, creating work orders, our change notice application, etc.
Anyways this was all developed in VB6 using access as the db. Although this might sound like a WTF (which I guess it probably is) the owner had zero previous knowledge of computer programming, and programming concepts, and taught himself everything about it. Which I think is fairly impressive considering how large the application is.
Presently the IT department (all 3 of us) are just about to start rewritting the application, and redesigning the database.
We have decided to rewrite the application in VB.Net (I would of prefered C#, but the other two people in the department want VB) and most likely be a client/server type application. We are still deciding on which database to use.
They are wanting to use Oracle, but I REALLY don't want to use it. I had to use it for school, and it was way too complex for what we needed it for. Also I have always heard Oracle is meant for big businesses (banks, etc), and after reading http://thedailywtf.com/forums/thread/84413.aspx it only confirms it.
Now we are still deciding which one to use, but I really dont know which is the best to use for a small (about 150 employees, but steadly growing) company.
I was thinking probably MS SQL server, as it seems easy to manage, yet powerful enough to do the job. Also stored procedures would be really nice. But other options would be nice to have to. We are (obviously) running everything on Windows OS (mainly XP, some 2000). The server is 2003.
What would be some other database vendors to consider? MySQL (I have used it a bit with a PHP application I developed, but didn't use anything advanced).
I also have heard some things about PostgreSQL, but I would need to do some research on it. Money also isn't really an issue. The owner already stated he would buy an Oracle license if we want.
What are your guys thoughts?
Thanks