Something I’ve been meaning to take a look at for a while now is VistaDB. I’m writing an app for personal use (to run this site) at the moment and it might be interesting to run it on an ‘embedded’ database, in case I fancy having paying someone else to host the site in future and want to avoid paying for a server-based RDBMS. Here’s the blurb from their 2.1 release announcement, which I’m posting because they promised to give me a free copy if I did. They did, which was nice.
VistaDB 2.1 database for .NET has been released
This 2.1 update includes over 60 improvements, including new support for .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2005. VistaDB is a small-footprint, embedded SQL database alternative to Jet/Access, MSDE and SQL Server Express 2005 that enables developers to build .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 applications. Features SQL-92 support, small 500KB embedded footprint, free 2-User VistaDB Server for remote TCP/IP data access, royalty free distribution for both embedded and server, Copy ’n Go! deployment, managed ADO.NET Provider, data management and data migration tools. Free trial is available for download.