There is DBIpp that is a Pure Perl DBI, which is almost as fast as the C/XS version of DBI. You can check the dbiusers archives for an actual quote of testing numbers. There is also a Pure Perl DBD::mysql driver. These Pure Perl versions would be easy to ship, 'C' compiling. Not that this would be used for your product, there is also the dbish which gives a Oracle sqlplus type interface to a db, it will work with any driver(DBD::?) installed. Check out dbish on search.cpan.org. There is one being developed outside of DBI, which will eventually be part of the DBI dist, that has more features. The DBIpp and DBD::SQLite could be shipped with the product, although I don't remember if DBD::SQLite is pure perl , you can also check out DBD::AnyData.

STH