You can install OpenOffice Base from the 'Add/Remove Application' Gnome user interface.

I think that the package is not included in the default installation because it's not used that often (and Ubuntu still runs out of a standard cd).

Here's a screenshot: http://www.linux.com/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/oooDatabase.png

I run a lot of VM on my desktop, so it's a little bigger than the one you have:

AMD Quad core Phenom
8GB DDR2
4x250GB SATA drives

I run Ubuntu Jaunty with VMWare server and can happily have 5 or 6 VM's running concurrently (with database workloads etc).

My laptop is loaded with Karmic.

Hum... interesting question. Echo is a simple program, with plenty of options already (man echo for details ^_^).

So I guess it is quite complete already. I never encountered snaggs with echo.