This is a fun topic, Steve, for a Friday poll. I got started working with SQL Server for much the same reasons you gave. I came to the position and agency where I currently work years ago. When I started we started a new application for tracking clients, and used Microsoft Access as the database. We put a .MDB onto a network share and started writing old VB4 code (yes, VB4) against it. It seemed to work well, for a while, but we soon ran into difficulties, because MS Access couldn't handle the number of users we were hitting it with. My supervisor at the time had experience with Oracle, and it was bad experience. He made the decision to go with SQL Server (I think it was SQL 6.5 back then, I can't remember). We've been with SQL Server ever since.