Linux Journal: Linux and Databases

"A preview and summary of the May 2 episode of Phil Hughes' weekly radio program featured on Wall Street News Hour."

"There are three categories of database worth looking at that are, or have been, in common usage. Importantly, many contemporary DBMSes may offer one, two or a combination of all three databasing methods.

• Hierarchical databases. These are the oldest of the modern computer databases (as opposed to the ancient computer databases, right?) and may be what most people, when asked, imagine a database to be. A hierarchical database is arranged something like an inverted family tree; access to the database begins at the top of the hierarchy and moves downward. ...
• Relational databases. Relational databases are all the rage in terms of database efficiency and power. In fact, most of the databases mentioned toward the end of this discussion -- PostgreSQL, Interbase, IBM DB2 -- are relational databases. ... By way of analogy, if a hierarchical database represents "getting out only what you put in (and only in the form in which the data was entered)", then a relational database offers the ability to get, effectively, information that was not specifically "entered" into the database. ...
• Network databases. There are a number of definitions for network databases, but the one that is probably most relevant here is the one that explains network databases as data organization methods in which data relationships have a "net-like" or hyperlinked character. ..."

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