OODBs negate the need for ORM. You can program in your OO language, and have your data stored 'natively'. This can be a huge advantage (removal of a bottleneck

OODBs negate the need for ORM. You can program in your OO language, and have your data stored 'natively'. This can be a huge advantage (removal of a bottleneck in translating between data storage paradigms), but one also loses data portability (the OODB tends to be uniquely tied to the language it's developed in). One outstanding example is GemStone, a high performance OO database: the development environment (Smalltalk) is the database; data is 'just' persisted. Smalltalk also has Magma DB, which is mature, open source, and under active development. Why Smalltalk? Pure objects, elegant syntax; one of the best languages ever.