>Hi Bonnie,
>
>>I hate to disagree with you (and I'm sure that has *never* happened before <g>), but there are plenty of people (both gurus and regular folk) here in the VFP community who *swear* by using MSDE for their data store instead of using native VFP tables ... and for all the reasons that Stephane mentions.
>
>That's wonderful. But you DO realize that the EULA specifically states that the MSDE is good for up to 5 connections but in reality you can connect as many as you want. So what will undoubtedly happen is that applications will grow in the number of simultaneous users and then one day MS will tighten up its policy. Bam! It's time to either re-write the application or pay MS for a 10,25,50 seat license.
>


Hey Hugh. Your point is certainly valid, but keep in mind that many of the apps for which people are using MSDE do not maintain constantly open connections. So, "users" does not necessarily equal "connections." I know, you specifically say *simultaneous* users, but if the app in question is an n-tier app that connects to grab data, disconnects, then connects again to update, you can have more than 5 "simultaneous" users with less than 5 simultaneous connections. In fact, you can have many more than five "simultaneous" users if you are using a disconnected recordset - based architecture.

But, as I said, your point is certainly valid. The only time I recommended MSDE for a client, they were fine with the idea of upsizing to SQL Server if they went beyond 5 simultaneous connections.... It's certainly something important to point out.