Annual sales for open-source database software will skyrocket from $120 million now to $1 billion by 2008,
predicts Forrester Research analyst Noel Yuhanna,
forcing commercial vendors to lower their prices over the next few years.

He estimates that 35 percent of all open-source database usage will involve critical business functions by 2006.
Open-source database applications such as MySQL and PostgreSQL are not only cheap,
but rapidly evolvable, and Yuhanna says Linux's success is making such software increasingly palatable to businesses.

PostgreSQL developer Pervasive Software will release PostgreSQL for free, and make money by selling support services.
Pervasive CEO David Sikora reports that PostgreSQL has several advantages over MySQL:
For one thing, its lineage is older than MySQL's, which adds up to more stability and advancement;
 in addition, PostgreSQL falls under the Berkeley software distribution open-source license,
which is considered more flexible than the general public license Linux subscribes to.

On the other hand, MySQL boasts more users than PostgreSQL,
and it has attained status as one of the LAMP core open-source programs.

Other open-source databases,
       such as Firebird from Borland Software,
      SAP's MaxDB, Ingres,
    and Berkeley DB,
will compete with MySQL and PostgreSQL.

IBM, meanwhile, released its Cloudbase database program to the open-source Apache Software Foundation last year,
and experts think the software, renamed Derby, could also be a major rival to PostgreSQL and MySQL.