Hi,

> Can anyone help me find some resources on the basics so I can have a
> play with employee.fdb?

Guides on SQL ??

You'll benefit from looking at the FB release notes and ancient IB docs.
There are also many sites out there with great info like firebird.org,
ibphoenix.com, firebirdfaq.org and many others. Or just go buy Helen's great
book, it's an complete guide to fb.

> whether you can open the database with a client and how?

Well, flamerobin is a 'client', so you've already done that. There are many
'client tools' out there for any kind of job you need. You also can build
your own tools/client apps in many languages like Delphi, Phyton, Php, Java
and so on... using from ODBC to language specific libraries.

> Whether there's something GUI, like MS Access or OpenOffice Base.

Flamerobin is an exemple. But there are many others out there as I've said,
start looking here:

http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&page=ibp_admin_tools

For other kind of tools:

http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&s=1209010143:1064066&page=ibp_contrib_download

You may also use Oo Base along with FB as you may find here:

http://jobinau.googlepages.com/OOFB.htm


HTH

Regards,
Anderson Farias