Specialized, Open Source Databases?

PyTHON71 asks: "I've been asked the head of the Wichita State University Anthropology department to help fix his growing biological anthropology collection database. It's currently in Access (insert boo's and hisses), but he is willing to have it developed in a reliable open source format. Now, there are a lot of university departments out there that need to have specialized work done on a small budget. They can't rely on just any developer, because the developer has to know biological anthropology (in this case) as well as MySQL, etc. And since it's not in the Hacker Code to duplicate work that's already been done, I was wondering what specialized database projects are out there & available for general use (not the data, just the structure)."

Comments

What about Access?

[GTRacer]

While I don't have a great love of the "Evil Empire" that is MS, what's so bad about Access? It's certainly not perfect, but tell me what Windows-based alternatives exist that will:

* Let me create front-end forms populated and controlled by code and query

* Support relational tables, indexes, complex JOIN queries, aggregate functions, etc.

* Design complex reports with page/section formatting and behind-the-scenes code controls

* Can access ODBC data sources

If you can show me the way, I'll take the first step! I'd love to cut some of the distribution costs here!

GTRacer
- Needs help with gcc + PS2...