This is very OT. If list readers can point me in the right direction, to other mailing lists, or web sites for recommended databases, that will be much appreciated! My wife's doctor wants to move records, for approximately 6000 patients (over a 12 year period), from paper (18th century) to a database (20th century). The data entry will be a PITA, for his secretaries, regardless of what software he goes with. I did some reading about MySQL, and I also did some googling for Linux+database and there are many other databases out there. One requirement is that one field be variable length (patient history: surgeries, treatments, etc.), which I suspect might vary from 200 words to 3000 words. That field size needs to be very flexible. If there are "front ends" that will make it easier for his secretaries to input patient records to the database and access it, that will be a "plus". It would also be a plus, but, it's not mandatory, if they can do this in Spanish. It's a small office (2 surgeons, nurses and secretaries) so I suspect there might be 4 to 6 workstations connected to the database server, maximum. I would like to help him get the best possible solution. Something with a large user base, excellent documentation and an active ML, like CentOS, is the goal. Thanks much! Lanny