OT: give advice to MSAccess user

[Matt Morgan]

On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 09:55:30 +0100, Duncan Lithgow
<duncan at lithgow-schmidt.dk> wrote:
> Hi there, it's not me that uses Access but a charity I work with
> http://dib.dk . I've volunteered to update/ repair their membership
> database - currently MSAccess. After hearing so many bad things about it
> I've said i won't use it any longer than is absolutely necessary.
> 
> So, I need a replacement. MySQL seems the obvious replacement - but what
> about a good front-end. That's what I need help with. I've not had much
> luck searching google/ sourceforge yet...
> 
> all suggestions welcome
> 
> Duncan
> PS: I'm currently playing with OpenOffice2.0beta - it has a database
> system built in - don't know how good it is yet.

I like the PHP + MySQL or PostgreSQL advice you've already gotten. For
that you also need a Web server, which is pretty easy to do (and can
be on the same machine as the db server) but is another level of
complication that your charity might not want to deal with. There's a
level of understanding to the web interface that is off-putting to
people who are used to doing something in a desktop app. (Don't get me
wrong though, I think web apps are fantastic, just that they can be a
hard sell--especially to people who are not terribly self-sufficient.)

I'm also interested in how OOo 2.0 will be. Desktop DB's like Access
encourage a lot of bad behavior on the part of badly-trained or
untrained people using them. Base (OOo's db) might do the same, but it
will certainly push OOo adoption.