[thelist] is Access enough?

[Ron Thigpen]

Users of Access 2000 now have the option of using Access Project files, in
combination with the MSDE service, instead of Microsoft Database (.mdb) files and
JetDatabase.  In this case, all the SQL objects are stored in the MSDE database, and
things like reports and forms are stored in the Access Project file.  Access
projects can also use SQL7 as a back-end db in the same manner.

MSDE is a client/server, not file-based db.  It can run locally or serve a
workgroup.  It is supposed to be very nearly 100% MS-SQL7 compatible.  This makes
for easy conversion from MSDE to SQL7 servers as an app grows.  MSDE db's can also
act as replication clients to a SQL7 server. 

The real news here though is that MSDE should support a much higher level of
concurrency.   MS has limited db size to 2GB and doesn't recommend more than 5
concurrent users (roughly the working upper limit for JetDatabase), but the SQL7
engine should scale much better.  I haven't seen any real testing done, but users
are reporting good results.  
MSDE is included in Access2000, but doesn't install as the default.  There's a
separate installer on the CD.

see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/backgrnd/html/msdeforvs.htm

--rt


> > Can't Access be used as a front end to other RDBMS's using ODBC? I
> > thought this was the case, but I never use/can't stand Access
> > so I'm not
> > totally sure.