We have a point-of-sale app with a little over 1000 installed sites.
Currently about 80% of those are standalone computers and the other
20% are network installs. Most of the networks are simple 2-3
computer peer-to-peer Win 98, 2000, or XP. We have a handful of
installs (10 or so) where we are dealing with a dedicated server and
anywhere from 10-50 workstations.

For the last 7 years our app has been using dbase files with Apollo
index files. This has been okay but now we are doing a total re-write
of the software using Delphi 7 and wanted to look into using other
databases. I need some advice as to why I would want to use FB.

Nobody here is really familiar with SQL (I cut most of those classes
back in college 13 years back). We just do most of our work with
dbtable.seek statements and dont really make that much use of queries
although we will be building more filtering capabilities into the new
software.

My basic question is would FB actually be better than something like
Advantage or Paradox or dBase or other "desktop databases" and why or
why not?

Since most of our clients do not run networks, is FB total overkill?

Will a FB database be faster or slower than what we are used to with
dBase?

Our clients are basically morons when it comes to computers so is
this idiot proof to install and set up? We do 1-2 installs a day and
send out 15-20 evaluations off our web each day so I need this to
install and configure itself.

Is FB bullet proof or do we need to be concerned with the database
corrupting from time to time? If so, how complicated is it to repair?

Bottom line...what would you do if you were me and why? Once we
commit to something I need to stick with it for another 5-7 years and
I don't want one app for stand alone systems and one for
networks...it needs to work for both and I need it to be very fast,
super easy, and exceptionally reliable! What do I do?

Any and all comments are appreciated as we try to move out of the
dark ages.

Trevor