>A desktop system is something you use on an individual PC like MYOB (used

in

>it's single user setup) or Quicken. It uses the computers filesystem to
>store data and the application running in the foreground is in total and
>sole control of readin and writing to the data files. You cannot have
>another person on another PC simultaneously editing the data of your PC
>without serious risk of corruption or loss of control over who has saved

the

>last piece of information, overwriting the person before them.

>On the other hand Firebird/Interbase, MySQL, Oracle, MSSQL etc etc are
>RBDMSs which comprise a service running on a PC which co-ordinates the
>reading and writing of data which is being requested and posted from
>numerous client PCs. The client application does not read/write directly to
>the storage file (in this case gdb file), that is the sole task of the
>service (running on the "server").

Alan, you have a way of making things clear. I spent a good many days
researching more about database (yes I did learn it at university, but
promptly forgot..) trying to reach a point where I understood the concepts
as you have so simply explained them.
Thanks, you have increase my grasping of it all.

Regards,
Cassandra