Dorian C

Using MS Sql Server 2012 free with dbGo (migrated from Ms Access), for more than 8 years with great success for small companies (for accounting and medical software). Not a single file corrupted! Scale perfect from LocalDB - monousers (with automatic installer), to Express edition for remote, but no experience with cloud now. Simple to install and maintain. Worked with success in the past also with Firebird, but they don't have automatic management of versions installed and instances for server like MS Sql Server. In case of migration to .net, the support is exceptional with linq, entity framework, dapper.

Web is far better for the software vendors and not for the enduser. Now that "big players" left the desktop, there is an incredible business opportunity for startups in making new desktop accounting software. Moving to the web is not determinated by a real request for the majority of users, but pushed by some software vendors.

For more than 15 years, my main components are Ehlib + FastReport, only VCL, these are simple, stable, powerful. Used for accounting and medical software.