Alborg wrote
This is an important topic in that for a small office to purchase the obviously super-robust entails that purchase of not only an expensive server, but also the up-front $1000+ SQL fee and also the technical expertise to maintain this complicated setup. The savings of a Jet 4.0 vs. an SQL is wide. An SQL can total ~ $15000 for a multi-processor RAID server with a multi-license SQL backend vs. a mere ~$3000 for a setup with 6 ebay barebone computers in a 1000 mbps LAN configuration. The Jet 4.0 backend is free, expandable to reasonable limits, and easy to maintain (and program).
Now you are trying to scare people into thinking they will have to pay 15000 for SQL Server to run AC. Do not poison the well.
There is no governor in SQL Server 2005. So when you make this statement it tells me you are more interested in scaring people than in conveying accurate knowledge.
Euan Garden states this plainly in his SQL MythBusters:
One of the first decisions out of this group was that the Governor had to go. It was simply causing too much confusion, but we had to find a way to limit “MSDE 2005” hence the memory and proc limits came in. We upped the DB size limit from 2GB to 4 GB as that was just a reflection on how much data was being generated and was useful to customers.
Let me repeat for clarity THERE IS NO WORKLOAD GOVERNOR IN SQL SERVER EXPRESS EDITION.
Alborg wrote:
The MS Office software comes with the MS Office Graphic Library activex control whose reference can be set, essentially making this an "inherent" feature. Pretty nifty, really. You can do that with any of the different MS Office softwares (s.a. Access, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc). The companies you mention make other activex controls that adds extra power, but this comes at a significant cost.
When you write software for YOU, you can demand that YOUR computers have Office. When you write software for COMMERCIAL consumption you cannot insist that every machine has Office installed. Which version? Office 2000. OfficeXP, Office 2003, Office 2008?
I am a Microsoft developer, and I develop software for the least common denominator. Any software package I build will have the following. The ability to read and write word, excel, pdf files without saddling the user with extra costs.
