MB Foster has announced a new version of its database transfer and migration tool UDACentral, one which works with the most popular open source database, PostgreSQL.

Open source databases are among the hottest choices in re-architecting from HP 3000 installations. Customers don't want to get pinned down with a single-vendor choice if they see their database is controlled by a systems vendor. Products like IMAGE get abandoned by vendors like HP. Several 3000 app developers who've gone to open source versions for their products swear they'll never use anything but open source database choices.

UDACentral, which just added a raft of databases to its exchange and migration services last year, is bringing the most widely used database to the roster in PostgreSQL. Ingres, one of the original enterprise database providers, spawned PostgreSQL, which evolved from the Ingres project at the University of California. PostgreSQL is the most popular alternative to the MySQL database.

It's an important addition considering where control of MySQL has reverted: to Oracle, which bought Sun's rights to MySQL along with the company last year. Support fees have now been tied to licensing since the purchase. The MySQL users are weathering a hard time in using software which was supposed to play outside of a system vendor's control.

MB Foster, which also added the Progress database to the UDACentral roster with the new version, is reaching the widest array of database support with the additions. The two new databases join MySQL, Ingres, Sybase and Cache, as well as Eloquence, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, and TurboIMAGE. The software can move any of these databases' data between one another, using a Java-based facility.