MySQL was previously owned by Sun Microsystems. Then Oracle bought Sun. So now it is managed by Oracle. This is an open source product. However there are other offerings out there. Let look at one or two of them.The most direct competition from Microsoft would be their SQL Server Express. However that product is not as simple as it sounds. I want to call attention to another product. That is SQLLite.
SQLLite is actually a library. There is no configuration required. You link in a database engine. The contents of the database are stored in a single file.
SQLLite is implemented in C++. The API to the database is low level. This thing was made with C programmers in mind. Good luck if you want to access it through some .NET code.
You should realize that this is a scaled down database. It tries to implement most of the SQL-92 standard. But it is still low power. You don't even want to try to access the database from multiple threads. Things will not go well. I must confess that I am not a MySQL expert. So I cannot as of yet compare SQLLite with it. However I do have a personal project which is outgrowing Oracle Express Edition. MySQL may be my next bet.
