an kinda OT question, but these seems a good forum to post it... i'm in the beginning stages of starting up my own used bookstore that would (at least initially) sell solely online through existing retail channels like amazon, half.com, abe.com, and so on. i've spent about five years dealing with used books one way or another, and i've encountered many book database systems, most of them windows-based, and most of them fairly lacking in areas i would deem crucial to operating a decent scalable bookstore inventory system (i.e. lacking flexibile customization options, lacking a decent relational database system, and lacking flexible export options that would allow you to format your database to upload to more than one website, each of which accepts fairly different file formats from UIEE, tab-delimited, etc.). anyhow, i'm looking around for an ideal database system that allows flexibility for these options. i'd ideally like the system to run on linux, mainly for expandability -- i'd prefer to avoid incurring extra user fees each time i add a computer, and i'd prefer to avoid being forced into upgrading my OS for windows updates -- not to mention the other obvious benefits of using linux for business systems. i'd also prefer to use an open source database, also for keeping operating costs down. i'm not very knowledgeable on databases, and i've been doing some research into MySQL and PostgreSQL. as far as i can tell, both of these would provide a pretty robust DB system that could allow me to catalogue books in whatever format i need, and could eventually also power a e-commerce website should the need arise (which would be ideal, since i could have realtime interaction between cataloguing books, accepting online orders, and the central DB). however (and please correct me if i'm wrong), as i understand it, i would need to first build my database in MySQL or PostgreSQL, then build an application (in PHP or Perl or similar) to allow me to interact with this DB? i'm not a DB programmer, so i imagine i'd have to hire someone to build this for me -- can someone on this list give me a vague estimate the cost of such a project? or does such a thing as a prebuilt MySQL inventory system exist for linux? thinking ahead to opening a retail location, are there any prebuilt Point-Of-Sale systems for linux? i've done some googling, and found some old links to what look like abandoned POS-on-linux projects. i'd really prefer to avoid windows for this... can anyone offer me any advice? thanks, and please correct any of my misunderstandings. i'm fairly new to DB software, but i know there has to be something out there better than the Piece-of-Sh*t systems i've had to use in the past.. thanks in advance, Nick _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota http://www.mn-linux.org tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list