I'm brand new to Hibernate.
I would like to use QED 3.3 from Quadcap as my SQL database.
The database is embedded in the desktop application.

Is Hibernate and QED a compatable combination?

QED not listed under dialects, is that a problem?

Even though I have never heard of that database, it is quite probable that you can get it to work, as long as there is a JDBC driver, and the DB obeys the SQL standart at least minimally. You will most likely need to write a custom dialect, which is not that hard. Just look at the existing Dialects for examples.

Try the generic dialect as a start point, then write your own dialect based on your knowledge of this DB. This isn't very complex, and "samples" are in the net.sf.hibernate.dialect package
Feel free to give it back to the community :-)