>Hi all,
>
>I was going to start writing a few small applications in .Net and was wondering about a good desktop database. I'd rather not use VFP just from an experience point of view. What I'd like to do is write a small application to record the name and personal details of people using a .Net (c#) front with a database behind it that is deployable on any desktop windows xp or vista onwards.
>
If you want multiuser access across the network, use the MS-SQL free express -
you won't run into the size limit of 10GB from the above and for Dotnet it has the best support in VS.
The free versions of Oracle and especially DB2 have less restirction AFAIR
but you will find more help for MS-SQL directly in Dotnet circles.
If you consider to learn a totally OS DB, I'd pick PostGreSQL over MySQL

If is deployable on any desktop windows xp or vista onwards.
is meant as a database for each single PC, no concurrent C/S access,
go for SQLite, probably the most installed ebedded DB,
but multiuser access there is less sophisticated than even vfp -
it is MEANT as the local datastore on a particular machine (Thunderbird, Firefox...).

Also promises portability of the data file even down to mobile devices.

my 0.02 EUR

thomas