>>We have clients who can't keep a simple Windows network running, and we're supposed to trust them to run a SQL-Server (no matter which kind)? The prospect scares me.
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>The only way to do that is to make it completely standalone, with fixed settings, automatic maintenance etc - practically invisible, so the user needs only to feed the pigs. If that is possible, fine, if not, do what is possible.

I remember we tried that. However, experience teaches that users will do things that you have not accounted for. :)

To be a developer is a challenge and becomes more complex with time. We must concern ourselves against so many different entities. Those that work against us include users, network types, security types, infrastructure, hackers, Microsoft and other software lack of providers, to name a few.

Twenty five years ago my dBaseII program ran with no problems. The world was simpler. The application was complex. Add the Internet to the equation and you have really changed the picture. Add the other elements working against us and it becomes so much fun! :)