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Software Linux

Rekall Now Available Under GPL 304

Posted by simoniker from the free-ks-all-round dept.
Karma Sucks writes "Rekall is one of those killer apps alongside Scribus, Evolution, OpenOffice and Mozilla that could make all the difference for Linux desktop productivity. For those of you not in the know, Rekall is a RAD DBMS similar to MS Access or Paradox and has now been GPL'ed by theKompany. Community development and organization is to take place on rekallrevealed.org."
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Rekall Now Available Under GPL More

Rekall Now Available Under GPL

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  • Same day Arnold is sworn in (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:37PM (#7496420)
    we get a story about something called "Rekall".

    Coincidence? I think not.
  • I seem to "Rekall" seeing this before.

  • Rekall is a RAD DBMS (Score:5, Funny)

    by burgburgburg ( 574866 ) <splisken06@nospAm.email.com> on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:40PM (#7496458)
    Like, isn't that for us to determine, you know? I mean, they say it's RAD, for sure. But what if, like, I don't agree?

  • Finally, a desktop DBMS for Linux. (Score:5, Informative)

    by ninejaguar ( 517729 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:40PM (#7496461)
    This completes the open source office suites. This may also encourage and spread the use of Python. I hope they also include a connector to FireBird [sourceforge.net].

    = 9J =

    • Er, wha? (AKA DMBS??? ) (Score:5, Interesting)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 ) <slashdot@keir[ ]ad.org ['ste' in gap]> on Monday November 17, 2003 @05:09PM (#7496764)
      OpenOffice *already* has excellent DBMS tools, of the same caliber as MS Visual Studio / MS Access, built RIGHT INTO it. It also has connectors for LDAP, ODBC, JDBC, and other native connectors. Actually its interface for designing queries, which also closely mirrors the MS and ERWIN idea, is far FAR superior to what I see in ReKall.

      ReKall and Access are not DBMSs by any stretch of the imagination.The only thing that ReKall provides related to Access is a quick and dirty way to make forms to query your database. It is not anywhere near as powerfull as the database construction and query designer utilities in OpenOffice and Access.

      In summary, ReKall has its nieche, providing the small part of Access that OpenOffice didn't provide, but OpenOffice can still do many things ReKall can't.

      • Re:Er, wha? (AKA DMBS??? ) (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ninejaguar ( 517729 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @05:57PM (#7497237)
        "ReKall and Access are not DBMSs by any stretch of the imagination."

        Of course, you are absolutely right. My fault in perpetuating the idea further with my post. Access, FileMaker Pro and ReKall are desktop database applications that have the ability to connect to multiple RDMBSs.

        "The only thing that ReKall provides related to Access is a quick and dirty way to make forms to query your database."

        Yet, what a big difference such a belittled feature makes. In the tens of thousands of departments in all the companies in the world, it's FileMaker Pro's and Access' form creation abilities that interests the secretaries who put in requisitions for these products and support Microsoft and FileMaker/Apple.

        PowerBuilder's powerful query building tool is nearly everything a database application developer could ask for (minus the stupid syntax within the larger Powerbuilder scripting language). But, where is Powerbuilder, on a secretary's desk or on a developer's desk? I'll tell you something, there are more secretaries in the world than there are developers, and hence there are more Access installations than there are Powerbuilder installations.

        Due to its newly Open Source nature, Rekall will eventually have the things you ask for, but you must wait in line for the actual business needs that M$, FileMaker and now TheKompany are answering.

        = 9J =

        • Re:Somebody MOD PARENT UP (Score:5, Insightful)

          by thirdrock ( 460992 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @09:01PM (#7498683)
          Yet, what a big difference such a belittled feature makes. In the tens of thousands of departments in all the companies in the world, it's FileMaker Pro's and Access' form creation abilities that interests the secretaries who put in requisitions for these products and support Microsoft and FileMaker/Apple.

          PowerBuilder's powerful query building tool is nearly everything a database application developer could ask for (minus the stupid syntax within the larger Powerbuilder scripting language). But, where is Powerbuilder, on a secretary's desk or on a developer's desk? I'll tell you something, there are more secretaries in the world than there are developers, and hence there are more Access installations than there are Powerbuilder installations.

          I think that is two of the most succintly insightful paragraphs I have ever read on Slashdot.

          I would also add that many people begin their journey into computer programming by beginning with Access or Filemaker. This gives them confidence to then seek further instruction in more powerful languages.

          I know many snooty purists think this is bad, but there is not much one can do about snooty purists.

  • How do you pronounce it? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Camel Pilot ( 78781 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:41PM (#7496468) Homepage Journal
    is it reekall or reckall?

  • What a great message... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:42PM (#7496483) Homepage
    Do a nice thing for the community, get your site nuked by a slashdotting :\

    Can't we stick with posting links to SCO? They deserve this kind of treatment, whilst theKompany are pretty cool. (Especially if you own a Zaurus - tkcRom rocks.)

  • For the memory of a lifetime... (Score:3, Funny)

    by zephc ( 225327 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:42PM (#7496488)
    "I know it sounds crazy, but I went to this Rekall place after work, and..."
    "You went to those brain butchers?!"

  • Killer App? Who exactly needs it? (Score:5, Funny)

    by dilute ( 74234 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:44PM (#7496507)
    With PHP and XML, I don't really see why we need another database front end. What is it that makes this a "Killer App"? I don't see it.
    • ummm... PHP and XML are not a RAD database. I have not looked at it yet but one thing that Access makes easy is setting simple databases. There are tons of simple form/database/report apps writen in Access.
      XML???? What the heck it is not the great golden bullet. PHP is great but you still need a database backed.

    • Re:Killer App? Who exactly needs it? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by BrynM ( 217883 ) * on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:53PM (#7496609) Homepage Journal
      With PHP and XML, I don't really see why we need another database front end. What is it that makes this a "Killer App"? I don't see it.
      Though I don't know much about Rekall, Access is usually used for standalone "applications" - fill in forms and such that can be run natively under Windows. PHP would require either Apache or II$, a dedicated server and the admins for such a contrivance. Then, god forbid, some wacko would come along and make "improvements" to the PHP code. Access is dumbed down, so it can be given to dumb people (I wish that were the MS marketing line for it). Not only would Rekall be great for that functionality, but it would also be cross platform - meaning the Apple and *nix users could play too.
      • Apache is installed by default on most Linux distros and is easily installed under Windows.

        Making the database accessible through a Web browser interface eliminates platform issues. A standalone app must be supplied in a version that will run on the client workstation.

        • Apache is installed by default on most Linux distros and is easily installed under Windows.
          Most MS admins and MCSEs would balk at installing a "web server" on every workstation. I realize that there is already one there - even under Windows. It's just that they don't know it and will see it as installing two peices of software instead of just one. Lazy admin syndrome.
      • Not only would Rekall be great for that functionality, but it would also be cross platform - meaning the Apple and *nix users could play too.

        Here, IMHO, is the reason that Microsoft is mortified at OSS. Having a complete office suite that is cross platform means that the average person can be productive on whatever OS they want, not just Windows.

        From the user's point of view, realising that they don't need Microsoft in order to use thier computer for productivity tasks means they have the power to tell M

    • Re:Killer App? Who exactly needs it? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Slime-dogg ( 120473 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @05:30PM (#7496999) Journal

      If it supports such things as diagrams and visual representation of tables, I can see this as a really great application. There are other applications like this, most notably pgAccess and pgAdmin (for postgresql), but one that connects to a bunch of things is nice.

      These types of apps are great for throwing together the framework of tables for an application. They're also good for managing stored queries (or whatever you call them), as well as viewing table information. You have everything in front of you, so that you can scan it with your eyes while writing your SQL.

      PHP is just a language, and doesn't really give you much in the way of DB stuff... You usually have to roll your own application, and then you have security things that you need to attend to. XML isn't really useful at all in this case, since it's usually the result of working with a database, not part of the cause.

  • but where's the calendar? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Office suite apps are great, but all I ever hear
    is "There's no Exchange-Calendar equivalent for
    non-Windows environments!"

  • Should call it... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mullen ( 14656 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:50PM (#7496573)
    They should call this release "TheKrash"

    20 replies and the server is off to la la land.

    • As this is my first introduction to Rekall, I initially read the headline as "Wreck All". Not the kind of thing I'd want running in my small office.

      Perhaps just maybe a name change might be in order.

  • This one of the last apps I've been looking for (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    An Ms Access alternative was the last app I needed to be able to switch to Mac OS X. Being able to remotely query and update Oracle and Sql Server databases is quite important for my work. I'm glad to hear progress is being made on this front. If this can be integrated with spreadsheet programs, a great deal of "data analyst" type work will be made easier on UNIX platforms.
    • "An Ms Access alternative was the last app I needed to be able to switch to Mac OS X. Being able to remotely query and update Oracle and Sql Server databases is quite important for my work. I'm glad to hear progress is being made on this front. If this can be integrated with spreadsheet programs, a great deal of "data analyst" type work will be made easier on UNIX platforms."

      Why on earth would you need ms access to remotely query and update Oracle or sql server? Plenty of (better) tools out there to do th

  • Mirror of Screenshots (Score:5, Informative)

    by xcomputer_man ( 513295 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:52PM (#7496601) Homepage
    See here [uh.edu].

    Cool, it has a proper report designer and scripting. Not your average lame db frontend :)
  • I was there 30 minutes ago, everything was fine. Then, 10 minutes later, it's like the website's plug was pulled. It was a revelation! The website was recalled. Weird thing is, I'm not sure what led me there in the first place... http://www.totalrekall.co.uk/ [totalrekall.co.uk] might have had something to do with it.

    I'm tired, pardon my franch.

  • Good News (Score:5, Informative)

    by sirmikester ( 634831 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @04:57PM (#7496652) Homepage Journal
    I know its been said before but, this is a step in the right direction for the open source desktop movement. In order for mainstream businesses to adopt linux, there NEEDS to be a M$ Access alternative available. Right now there isn't anything that even comes close, and that is a major reason why many people don't even try out linux on the desktop.

    I hope that eventually, Rekall will come bundled with mysql and that it will resemble an access type application. I think that if this happens it could be a very strong alternative to Access.

    • Re:Good News (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Micah ( 278 )
      Actually it should come bundled with sqlite, not MySQL. *That* would make it a true Access-like application, as sqlite files are self contained, like Access MDBs.

      Maybe it already does support SQLite; I can't tell because the site is slashdotted.
    • I just discovered OpenOffice has a viable alternative to Access, they just don't promote it well. Instead of a separate program, the database reporting and forms functions are availble to all of the rest of OpenOffice. The database relies on .dbf files (sql lite might be a big improvement here) internally or on an external database (Mysql, Postgres, Oracle, ODBC, etc). Unfortunately these features are poorly documented and even more poorly promoted.

  • Hope the app is better than the homepage, (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Phil John ( 576633 ) <phil@NOSpAM.webstarsltd.com> on Monday November 17, 2003 @05:06PM (#7496727)
    at the moment you have to enter a lame "security number" to do pretty much anything on the website. Good thing I'm not blind and reliant on a screen reader isn't it. A not to people who use features like this, for the sake of those people who do not browse the internet visually (or who use a text mode browser like I find myself using occasionally)...please, for the love of god offer an alternative to the lame securty numbers.

  • If it's gpl'd (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mAineAc ( 580334 )
    If it's gpl'd where do we get the source code? I would like to download it.

  • What a killer app! (Score:3)

    by anthony_dipierro ( 543308 ) on Monday November 17, 2003 @05:34PM (#7497036) Journal

    For those of you not in the know, Rekall is a RAD DBMS similar to MS Access or Paradox

    WOW! That's just what I was waiting for before I could switch!

  • pgAccess (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Harry8 ( 664596 )
    Anyone know how this compares to pgAcess? [pgaccess.org]
    If anyone is reviewing might make a good basis for comparison.

  • Strange stuff around Rekall... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ian Bicking ( 980 ) <ianb@@@colorstudy...com> on Monday November 17, 2003 @05:52PM (#7497193) Homepage
    I wonder how this relates to this thread [tinyurl.com] (which actually starts here [tinyurl.com]), which were posted to comp.lang.python [tinyurl links point to long google groups URLs]. Seemed like there was some sort of disagreement between theKompany and the main developer. His site is totalrekall.co.uk [totalrekall.co.uk]. A bit of a soap opera, but at least both sides are moving in the same direction (GPL) -- maybe it doesn't really matter who owns the code if they both release it under the same license.
  • Did anyone else notice that in the post, when listing the other "killer apps" the poster only provided a link to Scribus and just listed the other ones?
  • With no support for the two most popular enterprise databases, Rekall unfortunately sounds about as good as one hand clapping.
  • Does this help or hurt the Kexi project for an INTEGRATED Koffice component?

    I was really looking forward to that last part to complete out Koffice and make it a legitimate replacement for general MSO users ( not power users of course.. but what is that, 1% in reality? )

  • Why the vitriol? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Keviniano ( 261786 )
    It seems almost obligatory for /.ers to put down MS-Access any time it's mentioned. I frankly don't understand it. Why it is very unfortunate that such a tool is in the hands of MS and not x-platform, on it's own merits it's a very powerful front end tool. People seem to confuse Access with the novices who use it.

    It has a good widget set, it has a functional scripting language, a graphical interface that's good enough for most queries you'll ever write (though it does make ugly SQL), and it has a quite
  • First off- Rekall is a very nice app. IMHO, TKC is one of the better app developers for Linux. Rekall is very much like MS Access, but a lot better. GUI design and Python scripting are a couple big strengths of the package. Like Access, you can use a database file of its own format (analogous to .mdb I imagine) or you can connect to a remote SQL server.

    Second- anyone know if the Zaurus version of Rekall will be GPL'd? I use it, although it is only the demo. The demo has all the functionality of the real

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