DB2
IBM is actually in the process of REDUCING the price of DB2 for smaller companies.
Current pricing:
User-based licensing model
$995 per server, plus $253 per user.
(User-based licensing works up to 4 processors on Microsoft Windows and 2 processors in Unix. User licensing is concurrent-use based, rather than Microsoft's per-seat, meaning you don't have to buy as many licenses.)
We run several IBM DB2 servers on 10 user licenses for less than $4K per server.
Processor-based licensing model (unlimited users, workgroup edition)
$15,000 per CPU for DB2 Version 7.2, and $7500 per CPU for DB2 Version 8. The price per CPU is actually GOING DOWN! Perhaps you can even work a deal to buy Version 8, but get version 7.2 until Version 8 is out of Beta.
The GUI's on DB2 aren't as nice as SQL Server, but we write our own Delphi programs, and the Delphi programs really don't care if the database is DB2 or SQL Server.
Where you lose out is in the available tools for SQL Server. But, the core database is so much better than SQL Server, and I think, with a little trickery, you could probably use the MS Access GUI tools with DB2 (using ODBC) if you had to.
I would really take a hard look at DB2, especially with the Version 8.0 price reductions.
It's 4X (or more) cheaper than Oracle on the Workgroup Edition, and it's a solid relational database.
Post back if you're interested and I can send you some information to get you started. You can download a free 90 day evaluation from IBM, but I'll have to get the specific URL for you if you're interested.
Glen Austin
