Not cheap but FREE! The new open source 6.0 also has a version that runs under Linux (cheap/free server OS as well). All kinds of stuff in the new version: visual tools, replication, stored procs, triggers, etc. The product has been around for a long time and is really quite good (I think better then MS 6.5). Personally I prefer SQL 7 or 2000 when using MS development tools but I use Interbase when using Delphi or when dealing with "price sensitive" clients. Actually, I have had way too many bad experiences supporting DBC/DBF databases in client environments. Bad nic's, bad hubs, defective workstations/operators or whatever conspire to produce corrupted indexes or worse. However, when the VFP DBC/DBF's are exclusively accessed by West-Wind, there should be no more corruption problems. In my personal experience I have found DBC/DBF problems to be confined to DBF LAN usage. We have a few "lucky" client but almost all have gotten hit. We have migrated all but a couple of our Accountmate clients to MS/SQL and no longer offer the Accountmate LAN version. We are developing applications with West-Wind and we put the DBC/DBF's on the same box as West-Wind and we have found no corruption problems nor do we expect any, as there is no DBF over the LAN. Very fast and very "cheap" solution. Some people still try to get too much and pay too little. Check out Interbase at http://www.interbase.com/index.html if you are interested in a "name-brand" open source SQL database with advanced features.

Robert Baker

P.S. Interbase has no native ADO yet, but there is a third party product, which might also open source.

P.P.S. Consider getting new customers. If they are too anal, they probably have other "complicated" issues as well.