Thomas,
The first step I'ld take carefullly still in vfp, and the next step probably in the directions you mentionedWe moved all our customers to C/S in the mid 1990s, apart from 2 who couldn't cope. Which taught me a very important lesson. The market is stratified. The characteristics of larger firms are endlessly paraded here by people who serve those customers. But there's a much larger small firm market out there...
That's why I tend to stick up for people using dbfs. It's not because they're a decade out of date, it's because they're responding to client budget and capability. We're seeing a slew of free C/s databases at the moment, but there are so many dbfs out there with smart mom and pop asking how "improvements" will contribute to the bottom line. So I see a long and glorious future for dbfs, even though they are more likely to be used on a Celeron than the latest greatest 64-bit big iron. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
