Firebird is just so cool...

No, I'm not talking about Mozilla Firebird (although it IS a cool browser), but Firebird database. It was formerly known as InterBase.

Some of the most impressive features:

• Similar to PostgreSQL, it is Oracle-like.
• Like MySQL, it is open-source and available to Linux, Windows, and UNIX.
• Extremely easy to install.
• Like Access, the database file is very portable (only a single .fdb file).
• It can run in 3 modes: classic mode (dedicated server), super server mode (shared server) and embedded mode (for desktop applications, like Access).
• Support most subset of ANSI SQL-92.
• Support of unicode (UTF-8 I think...).
• Everything you expected to see in a serious DBMS: ACID, subqueries, views, triggers, stored procedures, domains, system tables, and some Firebird-specific objects.

I've tested it under windows and it works very well. There are many contributed freeware. I have only tried one: MiTeC InterBase Query, which is so lean that it fits into a floppy! No need to install... Cool~

If interested, download and install it so as to experience how easy it is. Just follow this quickstart guide.