Both LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice are known for imitating programs from the Microsoft Office Suite and offering them as free software – Base is the equivalent alternative to Microsoft Access. The functions and characteristics of LibreOffice Base and OpenOffice Base barely differ from one another. This isn’t surprising since LibreOffice has been distributed as a spinoff to OpenOffice since 2010, and both Office Suites are based on the same source code. However, regular updates are released for LibreOffice.
Base is a Java-based RDBMS that is similar to its role model, MS Access: it works with a graphical user interface and provides the same basic functions for database generation and management. Program assistants are available to help you use different functions.
However, Base differs significantly from its Microsoft role model, as is the case with the LibreOffice and OpenOffice copies of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. For example, it doesn’t contain as many advanced features as MS Access and it’s somewhat more complicated to use. In particular, users who are accustomed to working with Microsoft Access are likely to encounter problems with this program (e.g., macros and reports are much more complicated). Nevertheless, Base’s functionality is amazing — especially considering that it is a completely free program.
Base’s backend is based on HSQLDB (Hyper Structured Query Language Database), which can be used to back up a database as a Base file as well as a dBase file. Since an HSQL database does not allow any contending writing access, this means that multipleusers cannot work on one Base database at the same time. However, many database systems with multi-user access such as MS Access, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Adabas D are supported.
Being compatible with other databases is generally one of the biggest advantages of the program. Thanks to the ODBC and JDBC database interfaces, you can connect Base to many other databases. Another great advantage compared to MS Access is its availability: Base (just like Windows) is also available for macOS and GNU/Linux, Unix, as well as BSD.