I would like to make mention of a database system called SQLite. It is not a database as you would know it. Instead of running as a server which you connect to using adapters and whatnot, SQLite is a DLL which your application uses to directly manipulate a database file. Bindings exist for almost every popular language (I am using Ruby). Setting up the environment did take longer than it should have because of the outdated tutorial I was following (oops), but if I was to set it up again the process would take only a few short minutes.