Walter,

You make some good points with respect to situations where dbf's can and do make sense. I agree there are times when dbf's are the only feasible solution. This by no means makes dbf's a technically better alternative. Nonetheless, if dbf's are the only feasible alternative - whether it is technically inferior is a moot point.

I simply responded to Mike's thesis that file-based systems + web services could make server-based systems obselete. I outlined a few major areas to back up my counter-argument.

The bottom line...I don't contrain my development based on third-world limitations. If I had a simple app to write, the choice to use dbf's would be behind the use of MSDE.