How many programs in a typical Unix installation are complex? Not many. Most of designed around the concept of pipes and filters. They don't need a database; th

How many programs in a typical Unix installation are complex? Not many. Most of designed around the concept of pipes and filters. They don't need a database; they are transformative maps. Complex systems often require complex data storage. If you have more than one process storing information into a file or set of files, you have to control that type of information. When faced with the option of writing complex, ACID like code or dropping in a PG or MySQL or SQLite option that takes from 1 MB to maybe 128 MB, most will go with using existing tools at the expense of RAM. Is Oracle the solution for every project? Sure, if you're Oracle. However, one shouldn't throw out databases for alternatives simply because they are a bit complex. In fact, I think that raw file IO is more complex because it is not the norm.