Choice of database

[Douglas Bates <bates@stat.wisc.edu>]

I would like to consolidate some of the data in our office into a
database.  Our office staff uses Windows NT with the usual MS Office
tools.  I see they have MS Access available on a menu but I have no
experience with it.  From the Linux side I would prefer to use an
SQL-aware relational database that supports access through perl DBI or
JDBC.

Can I expect to run a relational database that will support access
from our researchers' Linux systems and from the NT systems used by
the office staff?  I think I would prefer to run the server
(postgresql?) on the Linux system.

Is MS Access the interface that I should expect the office staff to
use?  That is, is it a client that can allow access to an ODBC server?

Please reply with a copy to me.  I don't regularly read debian-user
(too much traffic).
-- 
Douglas Bates                            bates@stat.wisc.edu
Statistics Department                    608/262-2598
University of Wisconsin - Madison        http://www.stat.wisc.edu/~bates/