Apache Derby 10.1.1 Released: “The Apache Database Project has released Apache Derby 10.1.1.0 (formerly Cloudscape), an open source SQL database written in pure Java that supports JDBC. New features in this release include:
* A network client driver
* Support for J2ME/CDC/Foundation with JSR-169 JDBC subset
* Online compress functionality for reclaiming disk space during operation
* XA support for Network Server
* Identifiers can contain up to 128 characters
* SQL INTERSECT, EXCEPT and SYNONYM
* JDBC Updatable Result Sets
* ORDER by expressions
* Allow insertions into an identity column
* Support for explicit Java method signature in function and procedure definitions
Liviu Nastasa 
A little exaggerated development decision: portability as a prime feature (Java’s “write once, run anywhere”).
It’s a niche product, clearly the development effort is bigger than the outcome. Microsoft created a lite version of it’s MsSQL2k product (MSDE), distributed it for free, and it servers well. Micro-RDBMSs are considered MySQL and Firefox, two viable, free products. And, let’s face it, J2ME will always be a client to a DB not a server.
Should “reinventing the wheel, over and over again” be the goal of every open source programmer?
Firefox is not a database engine .. maybe a web browser, the name of the database is Firebird.
Sorry for that… it slipped
Reading more about this subject, I finally understand that in a standard use, you have to run the Derby Engine within the application space of your JVM. That’s huge… We are talking here about a Jar of about 2MB. Ok, you’re not going to instantiate every class in this packet, still…