Hi all. I'm working on my first database project. I could use someone's knowledge and help on the specifics of using MSDE 1.0 legally. I've been reading up on this subject extensively, and I still can't figure out a clear answer.

I volunteer at a hospital and am writing a patient/physical therapist appointment scheduling program for a department. The department doesn't want to spend anything in terms of licensing for this project. I'm thinking of using Access 2000 and MSDE 1.0 as a solution since "Office 2000 Professional/Standard Edition" installations (Access 2000 and MSDE 1.0 are on the installation CD's) are already available on a few machines in the department and I don't want to get stuck with an older technology like Jet and/or DAO (want this program to be scalable in case SQL Server is an option in the future). Estimated number of concurrent users is between 2 and 4 people.

Is it legal for me to write an Access 2000/VBA front end, have it used by users with Access 2000 on their machines, and have MSDE 1.0 as the database server on a single machine without paying for any further licenses and fees? Or am I stuck using Jet if I want a free solution? What other restrictions/rules are there, ie. is there a limit on the number of users, does Access 2000 need to be installed on the machine with MSDE 1.0 as well, can the same scenario be done with MSDE 2000 instead of MSDE 1.0, etc.?

I read that "Office 2000 Developer Edition" (which is not available to me) is needed in order to redistribute MSDE 1.0. Does the database project I'm proposing qualify as redistributing (I do not have a good definition of this term)? I also read that MSDE 1.0 can be used by any owner of an Office 2000 license that includes it. The information I've read on various websites about the licensing is sometimes contradictory (about how "free" MSDE is), and I don't understand the wording on Microsoft's site.

Somebody, please give me the benefit of your knowledge.

- Sinh

MSDE comes with office. If you have an office license, you can use MSDE. You do not need to own Office Developer to re-distribute MSDE based databases. In fact, you can download a free tool from MS called "SQL Web Data Administrator" or something very close to that. This allows you to manage your MSDE databases as well as full blown SQL Server databases.

MSDE is really free, but it limits you to 5 concurrent users after that it slows down. It also limits the size of the database to 2GB. It has full SQL Server functionality, but lacks the front end for administration.

Download the tool i just mentioned for administering the database, and make it available to users whe you re-distribute.



Sal

Hello Experts,

I am very new to any database application development. I am trying to create a solution using MS-Access 2000, which I recently bought. Now if I create a solution using my Access 2000 license and MFC, and want to 'sell' it to my clients, then:
- Do they require having MS-Access installed on their system?
- Do they require MS-Access db license?

Any comments/suggestions are welcome! :)

Many Thanks for reading,
Vicky