Im new to Filemaker, my IT skills are in other areas, but ive been reading a bit about this tool. Ive been asked to help someone with a FileMaker solution they have. They mentioned that there is a "developer" version of filemaker that will let someone distribute an applcation that does not require the user to have filemaker installed, is this true ?

Yes, but the big gotcha is that you can only build single user applications. Databases done in the "runtime" version cannot be shared with other runtimes or straight up FileMaker. I believe that you can export and import but multi-user is impossible.

Lamentations:

Welcome to the Forums.

The "developer" version is, as of version 8, called FileMaker Pro 8 Advanced, and has a number of other excellent functions (beyond those offered by regular FMP) including the ability to add tool-tips, script debugging, the analysis tool, etc... More info is at FMI's website at:

http://www.filemaker.com/products/fmpa/

-Stanley