I was not sure where to put this question so I put it here. Am I correct that SQL Express is a Single User Environment? (one user working on a table at one time)? My client wants to spend very little on the DB end of the project. What DataBase(s) do users of Strataframe recommend I use? TIA.

Hi Terry.

No, that is not correct. SQL Server Express have some restrictions, but that is not one of them.

For a comparison chart between SQL Server versions, have a look at this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/compare-features.aspx

And for the second part of your questions, I would tend to say that most of us around here use SQL Server. And depending on your client's requirements, the Express version could do just fine.

We use SQL Server and have many users that use the SQL Server Express version.  When they reach the capacity of the SQL Server Express (detailed below) then all they need to do at that point is purchase a full verison of SQL Server and the Express database is literally the very same database, so there is really nothing to do but load a full version.

Here are the Express restrictions:

• 1 GB of RAM - Only utilizes up to 1 GB or RAM regardless of how much is in the machine
• 1 CPU - Only processes on a single CPU even if more is available
• 4 GB database limit - This is generally the one that pushes you over to the full version.  But each database within the server can only support up to 4 GB.

We even use SQL Express with replication to multiple Windows mobile devices simultaneously for one of our products, it has been totally fine.

Keith Chisarik

Thank you all very very much. The comparison chart was great.