free software alternative to Access

[Dan Jenkins]

Peter Dobratz wrote:

> I'm working with the Greater Nashua Habitat for Humanity.  We have an 
> annual fundraiser that includes many affiliates from New Hampshire and 
> Northeastern Massachusetts.  Our current solution to take registration 
> information uses a Microsoft Access Database that one of our members 
> developed.  Although our primary focus is having something that gets 
> the job done, I would prefer to use free software where possible.  
> It's disappointing to have to tell people that they can't use the 
> software we developed because they bought the "standard" version of MS 
> Office, which does not include Access.  There are ways of getting 
> discount prices for software for non-profits, but any money we spend 
> on software is money that can't go towards building houses.
>
> Does anyone know of any free software packages that we can use?  
> Basically, we have hikers and teams of hikers that raise money.  We 
> want to keep track of how much money each hiker contributed, and keep 
> their names and addresses, so that we can mail them a brochure for 
> next year's hike.  Most of the laptops that people own or borrow for 
> the event have some version of windows on them.  Some sort of bootable 
> CD with USB flash drives for the datastore might be optimal.

OpenOffice 2.0 beta has a database feature. It is available for 
multiplatforms.

> OpenOffice.org always had database frontend tools, but in past 
> versions they were very hidden. OpenOffice.org 2.0 starts to handle 
> databases like any other application, i.e. a new database can be 
> created via the "File - New" menu. For novice users OpenOffice.org 
> provides a new Table Wizard that allows to create database tables 
> without any knowledge of databases and SQL. The new embedded Java 
> technology based HSQLDB <http://hsqldb.sourceforge.net/> database 
> engine allows to create "database documents". These simple database 
> files don't require a backend database server like MySQL or Adabas D. 
> All information (table definitions, data, queries, forms, reports) is 
> stored in one XML file.

I have not used this feature yet. There are undoubtedly many more 
options, but that's the first one that comes to my mind.

-- 
Dan Jenkins (dan at rastech.com)
Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA --- 1-603-206-9951
*** Technical Support for over a Quarter Century