>I went to my first VB user group meeting last night. The discussion was on file manipulation (both flat text file and dbf's) from VB. When they talked about dbf's and ways to access them they had to use third party products such as ardimus (spl). My question was why didn't/doesn't MS build in support for dbf files? At least for foxpro files in VB?
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>The discussion was run by a consultant who also talked about his recommendation for a 10 user database application. He would suggest MS SQL server rather then Access, VFP or VB using Ardimus or the jet engine. I didn't speak up because I was there for the first time and wanted to make friends. Any thoughts?

Your VB friends are sorely misinformed. The Jet database engine natively supports ISAM files, including dbf's. No need for third party products. For VFP databases, you can use the VFP ODBC driver, free from Microsoft. (I think the most recent version of DAO supports dbc files in addition to dbf.) The consultant may also be wrong on the use of SQL Server for 10 users. VFP quite nicely handles large amounts of data and a good number of users. It depends on the requirements. If you need automatic security and robust data recovery features, then SQL Server is a good choice. Otherwise, it's probably overkill. I suspect the consultant's main area of expertise is in creating and selling SQL Server solutions.

Be careful in getting people's opinions on tools and products to use. Human nature will push people to promote what they know at the exclusion of all else. To keep as balanced approach as possible, I use VFP and VB in those areas where they are particularly strong. But I, being human, still have my biases! :-)