Thank you for your reply, i didnt know exactly how to ask my question cause im new to DBMSs. But yesh the question is clear to me now "what does MonetDB do differently then other systems?". Still dnt know if the question is too general...sorry for that greetings anjenny Hi Anjenny, Sorry for breaking into the conversation but I felt the urge. As indicated, you first question is too general and so is your second one. Depending on your level of knowledge, I would advise you to first get a basic introduction into DBMSs using a text book (this one is used a lot, I think: http://tinyurl.com/8p2zyq). This will give you a basic introduction into how DBMSs "process the data" in general. After that you may start digging into what MonetDB does differently (which is probably the question you wanted to ask). You already got the link on Column-Oriented DBMS but there is more to MonetDB: I'd advise you to check out the thesis of Peter Boncz: http://oai.cwi.nl/oai/asset/14832/14832A.pdf. After that you can check out the list of publications of the group: http://tinyurl.com/5u7z6w8. None of these should be too surprising and all could, I believe, be found using google. kind regards holger -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/How-does-MonetDB-work-tp31440282p31532578.html Sent from the monetdb-users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.