Serialization vs Embedded Database for simple standalone application

Question

Say, I have a pretty simple Java application that needs the way to store some user settings. XML is not a really good solution, since I want to store them in binary form. So, wh

Answer 1

As Apache Derby is an embeddable relational database, it makes sense to use it for storing and manipulating relational data. Using an embedded db for persisting a few user settings only is a bit overkill.

If it were me, I would use a simple key/value pair serialization for persisting user settings.