What happened to the popularity of database software?

[Malogeek]

My two biggest complaints with Synology are lack of advertising & lack of package data. Most people have no idea what Synology's DSM is capable of, partly due to a severe lack of advertising & partly due to minimal package data on their website. They have stupid powerful features & don't really do a good job telling people what they have. You could literally spend days digging into what these machines have to offer...

Maybe due to the kind of people that would buy and actually use the features, and even know what a NAS is, do the research themselves rather than discover them via advertising. They're very easy to use but I still wouldn't recommend them to someone non-technical.

 

[dullard]

Was database software ever popular? I can't think of a single use that the vast majority of people have for databases that Excel can't do far easier with the Filter button.

Sure databases are great and are far far better than Excel for those who need them (especially businesses). But for the bulk of the population? Too much effort for too little gain.

 

[Kaido]

Maybe due to the kind of people that would buy and actually use the features, and even know what a NAS is, do the research themselves rather than discover them via advertising. They're very easy to use but I still wouldn't recommend them to someone non-technical.

That's true, although I've been using them for a long time myself without realizing just how powerful they truly are. In my experience, they have been ridiculously reliable too. I pretty much only setup SHR-2 & keep up-to-date on system & package updates. I was very anti pre-fab NAS in the past, especially with stuff like Drobo, but I've been really happy with all of my Synology installations.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Cloud took over

This. There are websites specifically for whatever it is you want to keep track of, that all work way better than the old dedicated applications did.

OpenOffice DB is still around, if you want to roll your own.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Was database software ever popular? I can't think of a single use that the vast majority of people have for databases that Excel can't do far easier with the Filter button.

Sure databases are great and are far far better than Excel for those who need them (especially businesses). But for the bulk of the population? Too much effort for too little gain.

True. Spreadsheets get a lot of the low-end use.

 

[Fritzo]

The purpose of a database is to organize and quickly retrieve information. Normally, many people need this information. SQL is pretty much taken over for Access. It's designed to be ran off of a web server, so multiple people can access data at once, it doesn't need a special application to access the data, and it's a lot faster than Access. SQL variants are also free, as opposed to paying a premium for Access, and can support much larger databases.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Maybe people got tired of using "applications" developed by the office receptionist.

I keep a huge amount of everyday data in spreadsheets. I don't need forms, custom printouts, or other bells and whistles just to keep data for fantasy football or tracking utility bills or keeping gas mileage. I can do most everything I need in Excel.

 

[mxnerd]

SQL is great, the problem is that it does not have a front end. Most home users are not able to use a database without integrated GUI designer.

 

[NoTine42]

Some people use Excel as their simple database - one row per (whatever)

The rest use teh internets (hosted servers) and teh clouds.

Excel 95 could only handle 16k rows
Excel 97 upped that to a more useful 65k rows
Now Excel 2007+ handles 1m rows

Some of that database usage was just because Excel was a bad spreadsheet program

 

[Anubis]

Yeah...being able to resize the partitions AND transfer the contents of the system to a larger Synology unit kind of make ZFS moot. Plus the linked housings, optional upgrades (SSD cache, 10GbE NIC, RAM expansion), HA config, various integrated backup systems, security camera system, excellent package repository, etc. So many things you can do!

My two biggest complaints with Synology are lack of advertising & lack of package data. Most people have no idea what Synology's DSM is capable of, partly due to a severe lack of advertising & partly due to minimal package data on their website. They have stupid powerful features & don't really do a good job telling people what they have. You could literally spend days digging into what these machines have to offer...

as an owner i agree with this about DSM, however they are also lacking some things which IMO should be standard, like the ability to auto backup & syncv from more than one location

 

[shortylickens]

Anyone still using Lotus?

 

[Sheep221]

I think that local database software had fallen out of favor for security reasons, all desktops are connected to internet and are very vulnerable, it's just more secure to save anything from business data, medical records etc on company's own secure servers or third party business service servers, or company's servers hosted off-site. In modern age of social media sites, ransomware and various kinds of other threats. If breach occurs, the consequences are worse than ever. No one wants to be responsible for breach just because their computer was hacked. Another thing is, data stored in data centers are frequently backed-up, no one in the office does backups, in case drives just go bad.

 

[John Connor]

what do u guys do with all that space?

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

You haven't lived unless you have dealt with 50mb excel file that doesn't even have actual data in it yet. :shudder:

And then parsing that crap in Perl

what do u guys do with all that space?

2x 128TB for me (see sig).
4K pr0n
Coming soon : VR pr0n

 

[sdifox]

The purpose of a database is to organize and quickly retrieve information. Normally, many people need this information. SQL is pretty much taken over for Access. It's designed to be ran off of a web server, so multiple people can access data at once, it doesn't need a special application to access the data, and it's a lot faster than Access. SQL variants are also free, as opposed to paying a premium for Access, and can support much larger databases.

Err sql server and access are completly different products. One is a server app, the other desktop.

 

[Fritzo]

Err sql server and access are completly different products. One is a server app, the other desktop.

??? They're both methods of distributing a database. SQL can be installed on nearly anything and used to serve up data to a web interface. I've never really seen anyone run Access to for a database to use on one computer.