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- Security can be reached by using COM/DCOM/COM+/remote control/ layers which shields the database from the user.
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That presents a lot of work Walter - and this defeats the flexibility argument. And quite frankley, it is rather ineffective. The user needs access to the network share the dbf's are on. And, once that access is present, there is nothing to stop the user from copying and/or opening the data with Excel, Access, etc. Agreed, there are some elaborate measures that developers can go through to try and lock down security - but in the end, none of it comes close to what an integrated security model can achieve.

You mention DCOM above. Have you every succesfully deployed anything with DCOM? I haven't - and it was not through a lack of trying. There is a reason why MS decides to leave DCOM/COM in the dust - to diffult - to kludge at times to administer.