New version, v10.10, has been released!

What's new with the PSQLv10.10 release? Here's a few tasty tidbits:

• Compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise platforms, along with other Linux Systems (Kernel 2.6.0 or higher), in both 32-bit and 64-bit environments, with options for complete and "core" installations, as well as the Linux Heartbeat, for cluster operations
• Certified for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista™ SP1
• Updated DDF Builder, enhanced library support and support for the .Net 2.0 framework
• Updated security portfolio including Pervasive Backup Agent™ and Pervasive DataExchange™
• Pervasive Backup Agent compatibility with PSQL Workgroup Edition
• Pervasive Backup Agent and Pervasive DataExchange support for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and 64-bit technology
• New Internationalization Support
• Longer Owner Name Support for Improved Security
• New SQL Functionality for INSERT, SELECT INTO, and SOUNDEX
• Improvements in other tools, such as DDF Builder and PCC for improved usability
• Updated Documentation
• License Changes: IMPORTANT! PSQLv10.0 Licenses may not work with PSQLv10.10. Please contact us for details if you use multiple (i.e. stacked) licenses for your database!

Bringing Btrieve to the 64-Bit World!

After a substantial effort, Pervasive Software is proud to announce their release of Pervasive PSQL Summit v10! If you're still running an older version of Pervasive.SQL or Btrieve, this is the time to upgrade to help make your systems compliant with today's operating systems and hardware!

• Vista Support: The installation location for the engine and client components and tools have been changed to make the software Vista compliant. This will make implementing Vista workstations MUCH easier for system administrators and end users. Additional changes to the way the registry is handled will make it easier to use Vista for Pervasive applications. For an idea of which changes were required, check the Pervasive Vista White Paper, available on their web site. See our Vista support page for more information/
• 64-Bit Support: The database client and the server engine are now available in 64-bit editions for use on Windows 2003 Server and Vista 64-bit operating systems. This increases the memory capabilities , and may also provide substantial performance gains on newer hardware. New 64-bit components include the DTI/DTO and Btrieve Client, as well as the MKDE. The SQL Engine (SRDE) is still 32-bit. The Workgroup Engine is only available in a 32-bit version at this time.
• Performance: Pervasive introduces a new caching system, known as Xtreme I/O (XIO) in this release. This new driver is available on 32-bit systems with 2GB of RAM or more and running Vista, Windows 2003 Server, or Windows 2000 Server. It is designed to provide additional "smart" caching capabilities to cache Pervasiuve data files in extended memory that is normally inaccessible to the database engine. This should improve performance of large systems. Of course, 64-bit systems will have FULL use of the entire memory space to optimize performance.
• New Installer: The new MSI-based installer is a great plus for application developers who want to embed the software with their own code. This installer should make it easier for end users to install v10, with fewer installation headaches.
• New DDF Format: The ability to support "V2 Metadata" blows away most of the limitations of the old data dictionary formats. This includes longer names and higher limitations on the data dictionaries (i.e. system catalog). Users of the database at the pure SQL level will LOVE this feature! A conversion tool is provided to easily convert your existing DDF's to the new V2 format. Goldstar Software has already started building a library of tools to work with the V2 Metadata, and a new version of FPrint is already available!
• Improved SQL Syntax: Pervasive Software continues to improve its support of SQL, adding some new features to the Relational Engine.
  • Remember the old "CREATE DATABASE" statement, which used to be in PSQL7? It's BACK, along with a DROP DATABASE statement!
  • We can now do a "partial index", indexing just a portion of a CHAR or VARCHAR field.
  • ORDER BY clauses are now valid in Views
  • A new variable @@SESSIONID is now available to uniquely identify the database session to applications.
  • Security is now available for Views and Stored Procedures.
• A New DDF Builder: Pervasive has released a new DDF Builder v4.5 for this product release . The new and improved DDF Builder makes it even easier to work with and clean up existing data dictionaries.
• Query Plan Viewer: This longstanding tool is finally getting its due -- documentation and OFFICIAL support! If you like the Query Plan Viewer, you'll LOVE Goldstar Software's ParseQPF utility, that quickly and easily extracts SQL statements from the query plan file for you!
• Page Compression : With the addition of page compression, users can store more and more information, but yet keep the database smaller and more compact, making it also more efficient in terms of storage. With today's fast CPU's, this may also improve performance for some systems! Goldstar Software's repair utilities will NOT handle a page-compressed file at this time. Support may or may not be available for this in the future.
• Terminal Services Support : You can now install and support the system via Terminal Services (a.k.a. Remote Desktop). The improved support for Terminal Services should also make it easier to track licensing in this environment.
• New Internet/Intranet Licensing: If you run Pervasive with a web server or other front-end that "hides" the actual number of users, you can now get the Internet/Intranet license on a Per Server basis, instead of a Per CPU basis.

Some of the application vendors we work with have already tested the Pervasive PSQL Summit v10 update and are working to fully support this new release! Others are still in the evaluation phase. If you are not sure, check our Application Support pages or contact your application vendor directly.

What are the downsides to upgrading? Well, there are a few minor issues...

• Cost: This is, of course, a paid upgrade for existing users. New users implementing a Pervasive application, however, will be pleased to know that the PSQLv10 pricing is the SAME as the old pricing for PSQLv9! . Pervasive is also getting on track for a paid release every two years. This gives developers and end-users alike a way to forecast new upgrades and product purchases, as well as a way to budget their database expenditures. You can mitigate this by purchasing Upgrade Maintenance with your product which provides all updates at no additional charge for a flat yearly maintenance fee. Ask us for details!
• Changes: Nobody likes changes, and this system has plenty. The Vista compliance dictates that the default locations of key files, exe's, DEMODATA, and other items must move, in some cases to invisible directories. This will make dealing with computer-illiterate users a lot more "exciting", but makes the 18-page Vista White Paper a thing of the past.
• Testing: Like most prior versions, it will probably takes some database developers a few months to get their application tested and approved on Pervasive PSQL Summit v10. If your developer has not yet announced support for this engine, we recommend that you specifically ask them about it. Otherwise, you may need to do some testing on your own. Because of the high level of backward compatibility that Pervasive still retains, we expect no problems with Btrieve-level applications at all!
• Novell NetWare Support: Yes, it finally happened -- NetWare is no longer a supported server platform. If you are running an older NetWare server, you'll need to be staying on PSQLv9 indefinitely (or at least until you can upgrade to Linux or (egads) Windows. To keep you happy, Pervasive has NOT increased the price of your PSQLv9 licenses! Check out our NetWare Support page for more information.
• Windows Workstation Versions: You knew this was coming too -- support for Native DOS 6.22 workstations, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows NT has been terminated. If you have ANY Windows 9x/ME computers left, it's time to upgrade! If you have DOS applications, they will still work, but ONLY on the current Win32 platforms, as BREQUEST/BREQNT are all gone now. Of course, you probably shouldn't be running that old stuff, right? Also, please note that Windows 2000 machines must be patched to SP4, and Windows XP machines must be patched to SP2!
• 16-Bit Applications: With 64-bit applications right around the corner, why are you still running archaic 16-bit applications? If you are, then you'll be on PSQLv9 indefinitely with the NetWare users, as there is NO Win16 client with this release. You MUST be in a Win32 or Win64 environment to use PSQLv10. If you MUST have Win16 applications, then please Contact Pervasive Software at 1-800-BTRIEVE! The more people who complain about this, the more likely they will revisit this decision. While you're on the phone with them, ask about the possibility of running the Win16 PSQLv9 client with the PSQLv10 engine.
• Workgroup License Changes: In addition to having a higher price on the Workgroup Engine, Pervasive has announced changes in the way the Workgroup Licenses are handled, with new license counts and a new single-user license just to confuse you. This will make anyone maintaining a large collection of users on the Workgroup Engine go absolutely crazy. On the other hand, the confusion will drive more people to the more expensive server engines.

Pricing can be found on our Pervasive PSQL v10 price list, or you can BUY IT from our on-line store. If you want to try it out before you buy it (and who doesn't?), you can get a downloadable license of PSQLv10 from Pervasive's Web Site at www.pervasive.com.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pervasive PSQL v10 (Click Here for Pervasive's Official FAQ)

Q: My vendor doesn't support the new version yet. What can I do?
A: You can still purchase Pervasive PSQL v9, which will be supported for at least 18 months after the release of Pervasive PSQL Summit v10. Then, you can choose to upgrade the engine later on, if needed. Of course, Pervasive has been thinking about the developers taking their sweet time in testing the system, and they've decided to do something about it. They have increased the price of the PSQLv9 licenses by 20% and discontinued product upgrade discounts to PSQLv9.

Q: Is Pervasive PSQL v10 backward compatible with my older applications?
A: In many cases, yes.

Q: If my application worked on PSQLv9, will it work on v10?
A: It is always a good idea to test your own applications. The new features can easily be ignored by older applications. One noted issue may result in the reduced support for page sizes, since fewer page sizes are now supported (1K, 2K, 4K, 8K, and 16K). Older apps should be transparent to the page size changes, but we've seen at least ONE application that can be sensitive to these changes. Also, older applications that do a BUTIL -STAT operation on tables may experience some problems with files over 119 key segments -- so be careful.

Q: Are all of the Ecosystem products (AuditMaster, DataExchange, Backup Agent) supported on Pervasive PSQL v10?
A: These products will be supported (via a patch). Watch the Pervasive web site for updated downloads for Backup Agent v1.2, DataExchange 2.9, and AuditMaster v6.4.However, due to major changes in the install locations and other factors, there will be NO "v10-installed" versions of the Ecosystem products until v10.1 is released. This means that users of PSQLv9 with DX/AM/BA will be able to upgrade their software to PSQLv10, and they will be able to apply the patch to the new Ecosystem product, but they will NOT be able to do a clean install onto a new operating system. An in-place upgrade WILL be required. This should be addressed with the major updates to the Ecosystem products coming with v10.1 in 2008.

Q: I'm running a small site on a Windows XP server, but the Pervasive support matrix shows that XP is not supported for the Server Engine. Is this correct?
A: Yes. Officially, the Version 10 Server component is not supported on the Windows XP platform. This is because the Microsoft EULA states an end-user-type machine cannot run server-type software in an XP environment. Additionally, the Windows XP environment might limit the amount of connections to the XP machine running as a Server. We do, however, have customers that run v10 Server successfully in the XP environment with no known issues. If you were to use this setup, only the Pervasive portion would be supported. If there was ever an issue with the XP Operating System and Pervasive not functioning together, it would not be supported.

Q: Is Pervasive PSQL v10 supported on Windows Vista?
A: Yes! Pervasive Software has modified their installation to be Microsoft Windows Vista compliant. You can run the 32-bit Workgroup Engine, or the 32-bit or 64-bit Server Engines in a license count of 6 or 10 (to maintain compatibility with the Microsoft EULA). Separate SKU's will be available for Vista users to highlight this limitation, though they will have the same functionality as the primary Server Engine SKUs.

If you have additional questions about the product, please contact us!