How can I run MS Access 2003 on Linux?

[lsemmens]

Until she is committed to changing, you are bashing your head against the wall, it does feel good when it stops. Unfortunately, Access is a pain in the posterior. The only real alternative is based on one of the SQL packages. LibreOffice and some of the other open source alternatives are good, but they are NOT Access and have got a long way to go to compete. I started out in databases when dBase was king, migrating to Access only after I retired. It was only when I was prepared to compromise what I expected a database to do and ditched a lot of the automation did I find an alternative that I could live with. Linked tables and the full relational model is not a strong point of the alternates.

[catweazel]

I started out in databases when dBase was king

Harharhar! I worked for Ashton-Tate developing dBase III and IV, and SQL Server.

[AndyMH]

Back in the day I wrote an order processing system in dbase II running under CP/M, over 10k lines of code. It was running on a BIG hard disk - 5MB.

[AZgl1800]

I asked Cyndi last night if she is still using ACCESS....

her answer is 'yes, that is where I have all of my inventory, vendor names, customer names'

she has been using ACCESS for about as long as it has been a product.
Designed a database for an insurance company down in Oklahoma City...

when she left, she kept getting a lot of calls from the office manager, "how did you do all of this?"

she kept telling them for years, that she is not being paid enough, and that she needs helpers....

funny thing, they had to hire 3 staff members to do her job, and none of them knows ACCESS...
they started all over from scratch.

[phd21]

Hi AZgl1500,

From what you just said, she does not use MS Access for employer business programming now.

Once upon a time, I also programmed in MS Access creating multi-user networked databases for businesses with a lot of proprietary data. The most important part of any database is the actual data and having the ability to enter (or import) data and utilize that data quickly, accurately, and efficiently.

Anyone should be able to open or import that MS Access data in their "database(s)" easily using Kexi (#1 for ease), or LibreOffice Base with "ucanaccess", then export that data into various more "open" common formats (even delimited "csv"), and then import that data into an existing contact management system, or re-create new data entry screens and report screens with the data using various Linux (or cross-platform) applications like Kexi, LibreOffice Base, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, etc... There are other databases available to use Firebird, MongoDB, etc...

If you can get hold of her MS Access database (or databases), bring up Kexi and tell it to open or import a MS Access database and you will see how easy it is to access the data. You can even download a sample MS Access database to experiment with.

The Top 7 Free and Open Source Database Software Solutions - Capterra Blog
https://blog.capterra.com/free-database-software/

Top Open-Source Database Software in 2018 | TrustRadius
https://www.trustradius.com/open-source-database

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10 of the Best Free Linux Relational Databases - LinuxLinks
https://www.linuxlinks.com/relationaldatabases/

20+ Best MySQL GUI Tools 2018 – TheBestDevList – Medium
- Not all of these will work on Linux
https://medium.com/thebestdevlist/20-be ... abe055475e

13 Best SQL clients for Linux as of 2018 - Slant (free and paid for)
https://www.slant.co/topics/9123/~sql-clients-for-linux


Hope this helps ...

[AZgl1800]

Thanks Phill,

will look at those and kexi....

I will copy her database and mess with it a bit here on linux.

[phd21]

Hi AZgl1500,

You are welcome...

[lsemmens]

I started out in databases when dBase was king

Harharhar! I worked for Ashton-Tate developing dBase III and IV, and SQL Server.

It was YOU who stuffed up dBase III+! I never did like dB IV! One question, Catweasel, why did Ashton Tate not follow through with a WIMP and OO model? I reckon I could still bash out a few thousand lines of code without too much difficulty despite not having touched dBase or any of the compilers (Clipper Summer 87) for about 30 years.

[catweazel]

I started out in databases when dBase was king

Harharhar! I worked for Ashton-Tate developing dBase III and IV, and SQL Server.

It was YOU who stuffed up dBase III+! I never did like dB IV! One question, Catweasel, why did Ashton Tate not follow through with a WIMP and OO model? I reckon I could still bash out a few thousand lines of code without too much difficulty despite not having touched dBase or any of the compilers (Clipper Summer 87) for about 30 years.

They decided to spend their development efforts on cross-platform dBase. No sooner had this been deployed into the market, they were bought out by Borland. Also, Windwoes was absolutely brand new at that time. Borland only bought them out because they wanted to get their hands on the InterBase engine; they let everything else die.

[lsemmens]

Harharhar! I worked for Ashton-Tate developing dBase III and IV, and SQL Server.

It was YOU who stuffed up dBase III+! I never did like dB IV! One question, Catweasel, why did Ashton Tate not follow through with a WIMP and OO model? I reckon I could still bash out a few thousand lines of code without too much difficulty despite not having touched dBase or any of the compilers (Clipper Summer 87) for about 30 years.

They decided to spend their development efforts on cross-platform dBase. No sooner had this been deployed into the market, they were bought out by Borland. Also, Windwoes was absolutely brand new at that time. Borland only bought them out because they wanted to get their hands on the InterBase engine; they let everything else die

I forgot about Borland. It is a pity that dBase did suffer an untimely demise, I still think it was/is way better than the m$ alternative.

[Pierre]

Back in the day I wrote an order processing system in dbase II running under CP/M, over 10k lines of code. It was running on a BIG hard disk - 5MB.

likewise - - DB2 on CP/M was seriously good stuff.

Harharhar! I worked for Ashton-Tate developing dBase III and IV, and SQL Server.

It was YOU who stuffed up dBase III+! I never did like dB IV! One question, Catweasel, why did Ashton Tate not follow through with a WIMP and OO model? I reckon I could still bash out a few thousand lines of code without too much difficulty despite not having touched dBase or any of the compilers (Clipper Summer 87) for about 30 years.

They decided to spend their development efforts on cross-platform dBase. No sooner had this been deployed into the market, they were bought out by Borland. Also, Windwoes was absolutely brand new at that time. Borland only bought them out because they wanted to get their hands on the InterBase engine; they let everything else die.

that also explains, quite a bit, actually.

[mediclaser]

Apps created in MS Access were the slowest I have ever seen. For that, I did not use it to create real-world apps. Back in the late 90's I wrote a batch program in FoxPro that completes the task in a matter of seconds. One of the company executives was very impressed, because the MS Access app they used for the same task takes several minutes to complete.