Press Release

VistaDB 2.0 officially released

Jet/Access and MSDE embedded database engine alternative released for .NET developers: VistaDB 2.0

LA JOLLA, Calif. – Sept. 25th, 2004 – Vista Software today announced the official release of VistaDB 2.0 as an alternative database engine for .NET developers using Microsoft Jet/Access and MSDE to build small to midsize .NET database applications. The main features of VistaDB is a small 400KB footprint, Copy n' Go!™ deployment with zero administration and free unlimited distribution.

"Our dedicated team of developers that worked for over three years, combined with twelve months of public beta testing from VistaDB customers, has made VistaDB 2.0 into the first serious alternative to Jet/Access and MSDE for building small to midsize .NET database applications.", stated Anthony Carrabino, President and CEO of Vista Software.

"I am very excited about using VistaDB. I successfully converted my database from SQL Server to VistaDB on the first try. This is refreshing for new software. Overall, VistaDB looks really good.", stated Greg Larden, independent contractor.

VistaDB is a true RDBMS that was designed to be an alternative to the now deprecated Microsoft Jet engine. According to Carrabino, the VistaDB user base grew dramatically in 2004 as developers learned that Microsoft had dropped support for the Jet engine, which is the underlying data engine for MS-Access. Microsoft dropped support for Jet from MDAC 2.6, which means developers have no future in continuing to use the Jet engine for building database applications. The company states that migrating Access databases to VistaDB provides a future under .NET along with providing more robust data management, a smaller footprint and easier deployment.

Microsoft's solution for replacing Jet is to have developers migrate their Access databases to MSDE or SQL Server 2005 Express. According to Carrabino, this is generally too big of a step for most applications. "These are powerful databases but remain too large and too complex for developers in this market segment", states Carrabino. With VistaDB's 400KB footprint, developers can use XCopy or FTP to deploy applications which is not possible with either the MSDE or the upcoming SQL Server 2005 Express. These Microsoft database are 40MB to 70MB in size and requires installation and configuration of the database on end-user computers, whcih doesn't work well for distributing applications over web. Vista Software believes that VistaDB will quickly become the favorite alternative to these larger database solutions.

VistaDB early adopters provided valuable feedback and the company was quick to implement suggestions.

"I have written against SQL databases for the last 10 years and I am thrilled with VistaDB. I use it for single user apps right now and cannot stop being thrilled with the speed.", stated Knut Vonheim, independent consultant.

"VistaDB has become one of my favorite developer tools," stated Steven Hodson from WinExtra. "I would heartily recommend developers give this product some very serious consideration."

"Absolutely love the live cursor feature.", stated Gary Andrews, an independent .NET consultant. " I am very happy using VistaDB instead of Jet/Access."

"VistaDB is exactly the solution I was looking for. It's speed and flexibility give me all the control I need over my data with only 2 DLLs to deploy. No complicated configuration or installation. A real .NET solution.", stated Claude Noel, Tech-Noel Inc.

VistaDB 2.0 supports Visual Studio .NET 2003, 2005, Visual Studio Express, SharpDevelop, Delphi 8 for .NET, Visual Web Developer and the Win32 versions of Delphi and C++Builder. VistaDB allows developers to build ASP.NET, WinForms and Win32 applications. Features include:

• SQL-92 support
• 400KB footprint
• Referential Integrity
• Managed ADO.NET Provider
• Direct Data Access objects for live cursor support
• VCL components for Delphi/C++Builder Win32
• COM objects for VB and classic ASP
• Snapshot isolation transaction processing (same as SQL Server 2005)
• Exabyte storage capacity with billions of rows per table
• Free unlimited deployments

VistaDB pricing starts at $129 for the Personal Edition and features unlimited deployments so applications can be built and deployed freely without purchasing additional licenses.

About Vista Software

Founded in southern California in April 1999, Vista Software specializes in building light-weight RDBMS database engines for software developers.

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