Well, I wasn't really interested in writing a app for them...I really don't have time. They just asked me to help get this set up. I do have a product that does a subset of what they need, but it's kind of a one-off deal that would require a lot of work to fit their needs. It's a fat client vfp app, supporting 10 concurrent users with pentium II 200 file server and similarly junky workstations.

After seeing Jordan's post, I found a cheaper config...about $6000, so I was definately off the mark there...but still. 6k for a 5 user server?

I talked to the folks demanding the hardware, and was told rather snottily that Oracle does "amazing things". What those things are could not be specified, but I was assured that they were amazing. Apparently too amazing for my tiny mind to grasp. I do know that the client does not need "amazing things"...they have been operating for many years on a cruddy old dos app that does the job.

This company makes decent, albiet ugly looking software and I have always given them a corresponding recommendation when asked. After this they get the thumbs down.