>Hi Vin,
>
>>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."
>
>You may know how to jimmy data connections to squeeze more free seats than would otherwise be needed but the next guy may not.
>

Well, I'd hardly call it "jimmying connections" -- it's a pretty well-accepted approach to database access. I'm not suggesting some parlor trick or proprietary reinvent-the-wheel approach. A google search on "disconnected recordsets" will provide any number of white papers, etc., all of which will describe this methodology better than I could. Granted, this approach is NOT the norm in native-data VFP or Access apps, which maintain connections, in a manner of speaking -- and might be the original poster's intent. But even VFP-SQL apps I have worked have used this approach.

>>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.
>
>If they find out later on after they're already too far down the road you might hear from their lawyers!
>
>Hugh

Always a risk with a client, wouldn't you say? (in the case I mention, I do have it in writing in the proposal, but your point stands). In fact, the only time I was threatened with a lawsuit -- which never got beyond the first conversation -- was in 1997 when a client was told by an MS professional that FoxPro was being discontinued and that the app they'd just paid for would soon be obsolete.