Hi Bob,

I hear your pain here, and I don't entirely disagree. Then again, if you have 10-20 users, SQL-Server is not that pricey. Out of the box, you get 5 connections. 5 more, that is about $150. So, you are talking about $1,000-1,200. For a dept-wide app, that is not bad. If I were charging $30,000 for an app, the price of SQL-Server makes up less than 10% of the price.

When it comes to what MSDE was made for, this bullet point from the web site really hits home:

Build mobile computing solutions that support merge replication with a central SQL Server