Alright , you are interested in trying out SQL. So where can you get the software? Here is how. The three most widely used SQL databases are Oracle , Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL. There are other SQL servers of course , such as PostgreSQL , IBM DB2 and SQLite. Each of the servers have their pros and cons so pls choose wisely.
Lets start with the biggest of them all. Oracle , which is at http://www.oracle.com. There is a free version of it , express edition , available at http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/express-edition/overview/index.html. Also , pls get SQL Developer as well.
Next is Microsoft SQL server , the latest version being 2008. Microsoft also offer their own free express edition at http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/express.aspx for you to try it out. Again , get the SQL server management studio as well. It plays very nicely with the SQL server and you can do queries and administration from it.
For the next database , MySQL , things are done slightly differently. Yes , you are still going to get the server and so on but I am going to suggest you get it via LAMP or WAMP , if you are on Windows.
Installation of LAMP stack (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) on Linux ,
On RPM-based distros , such as Fedora , RHEL , CentOS ,
yum install httpd mysql-server mysql php php-mysql
Or on Debian-based distros , such as Ubuntu ,
sudo apt-get install apache2 mysql-server php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-xsl php5-gd php-pear libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql
Pls note that by the time you read this , these commands may already be outdated due to the nature of distros having a new version every 6 months , for Ubuntu and Fedora and many more. So always always check for latest installation methods from your distro wiki or forums. These are only as a rough guides.
For WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL PHP), here is the link to it , http://www.wampserver.com/. Its the whole package really. It comes with ,
- Apache 2.2.1
- Php 5.3.3
- Mysql 5.1.53 (version 64 bits)
- Mysql 5.5.8 (version 32 bits)
- PhpMyadmin 3.2.0.1
- SQLBuddy 1.3.2
So instead of just getting the MySQL server , it is at http://mysql.com/ , for completeness sake , get the whole package! Oh and Its opensource , unlike the two servers above but like PostgreSQL.
