>I feel that saying "VFP is file-based" is a mis-statement IF it's intent is to imply that therefore SQL Server isn't.

How is that a misstatement? I think its dead on. Fox is file based, SQL is server based.

With Fox, you can copy a file to your hard drive, type in "USE c:\myfile.dbf" and view the file. With SQL, you can't. What you do instead is request something from a server and the server returns it. It may look at the disk to get something to return, but programmers request information from a server.

Why is this relevant? Well, the question orginally was, the SQL provider is free and the VFP isn't, whats the difference? Because SQL is server based, just because you have the provider doesn't mean you have data access. To Microsoft it means its easier to access data through a server that is licensed for several thousand dollars. In FoxPro's case, first, a file based database does not have that option. And two, with the providor, you are definitly adding funcitnoality to the product, turning it from a file based system, to a server (the providor) based system.

Hope this clears that up.