John,
>
>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 It's not because they're a decade out of date, it's because they're responding to client budget and capability.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. ;-)

And even the Celeron will be bored most of the times instead of running hotly ;-)
With some easy twitches you can improve the stability of dbf by more than 100fold and add to it by implementing an audit trail. Sometimes it *is* cheaper to fix a table once every second year compared to have to pay a full time DBA or half trained one - data entry errors via keyboard are happening more often. And if you have data entered at a sizable cost, it makes sense (logical, techical and business!) to eliminate possible points of failure by using C/S - still with different cost levels possible.

But for the things I am doing right now - datamining, automatically importing/extrating often changing Excel sheets directly from Outlook, using datafiles similar to the way we used/changed single variables in the 80ies - the ability to use the OS to pull the rug out under data history and consistancy is GREAT. While everything could be done inside a local server, the flexibility (read "danger" in traditional apps) is actually a feature, as we are working with huge amounts of "throw away data" which will be changed (even in table structure) a few times per week. Banging away at complex SQL statements with a recreateble data environment at the command window is hard to beat. Local tables, no multiuser isuues, only the 2 gig barrier... And best of all: No need to take the error call of the CEO's sister-in-law cousin, who has enough pull to get my number to give me incoherant error descriptions coupled with some personal wishes to add to the application<g>.

regards

thomas