Jason;

Yes, and Microsoft Office isn't the only office suite, either - but if this search is driven due to a customer demand that sounds suspiciously like "I've heard that I should be using SQL" rather than by real technical concerns it makes me suspect they won't go for a name they're not familiar with.

At the same time, the programmer is gonna spend a fair amount of time learning to tune SQL to a particular 'flavor'. It would be best for him if it were with something with more name recognition.

I may be reading more into this than what's there - time will tell. I'm eager to find out what the final outcome of this issue wil be!

Regards.

>>I only know there are only two SQL servers out there for all intents and purposes - and you already checked the cost of MS!
>
>Then you need to get out more. MS SQL Server and Oracle aren't the only 2 capable SQL servers out there.