>- Iron Python (then extrapolate out to other .Net languages)
>- SQL Server - make sure you read about all editions
>- LINQ

While those were the exact bullet points I expected you meant in your first answer, I am at loss why the SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (which I guess you specifically meant by "all editions") is also stripped down to 4GB. For the road warrior (largely disconnected) scenario this seems to be much better in the areas of needed resources and deployment. This was one area vfp excelled as installing full grown MSDE or Express Editions on not totally current machines might tax them or be considered overkill.

Replication/update conflict resolution I have to see in action, as this was the largest drawback in vfp and also in previous versions of SQL server not always unproblematic<g>. At least it seems to be targeted by MS.

As CE is single user, the IMHO best arguement againt multi-GB tables (rising cost/danger of corruption) is void. I don't think 64-bit numbers would add that much in footprint size in 32-bit versions. Large local/embedded tables were specifically mentioned by the OP, and AFAIK there still is an option to deploy a full grown SQL server as desktop module in some licensing scenarios without added cost.

So this gives another alternative, which is (perhaps more than only) competitive, but probably not clearly superior in every possible dimension.

my 0.02 EUR

thomas