>My point - which was bent around by a few knights on white horses - is that
>"idiot users" don't know about things like backups; they also tend to
>blast any old thing onto their computers and break things; they download
>free SQL tools and stuff up databases...you get accountants who write cute
>little Access front-ends that can break things *really* bad...
>
>In a controlled deployment - where there's SOMEONE who knows about these
>things - the DBA role can be very hands-off, once the users and the
>knowledgeable person assigned the role of "boss of the system" (they
>usually call themselves "the DBA", whatever their background) have been
>coached into living with a database server.

With the greatest of respect Helen, I disagree (but only very marginally :-))

I have an application out there called "Peakmate", which interfaces to a
hand held reader unit. It takes ultrasonic readings from machine bearings
and has graphical displays as well as various reports.

Now, while I have a support number in the readme file, I have no idea who
buys these applications, or where they are distributed. True, I have had to
do some work on the client side to make it robust - but I have NEVER had a
support call for IB/FB. Not even once. And this application is sold
throughout South Africa, as well as in Europe and Australasia. The closest
I have come to a support question is "how do we move the RDBMS to a remote
server with the GDB file?", and "how do we connect remotely?"

The only other RDBMS that is robust to a similar level that I am aware of
is Postgress.

Regards

Tim