Version Question

[bvc]

I'm sure this is incredibly self-evident and I apologize in advance.

I'm about to add a second Mac to my home office and I want to use both machines to share the seven tables comprising my dBase.

I'm running FM10.3 on Mac 10.5.7 and have a copy of FM11. I'm not sure I want to upgrade; I'm not convinced I'm missing ANYTHING in FM that I need.

Regardless, I remain confused about:

1) do I need two copies of FM?

2) if so, do they have to be the same version - i.e., could I run 11 on the new [faster] machine and 10.3 on the old? I want the old machine to have read/write capabilities.

I can't find anything on FM's site and everything I've seen so far -- in a couple of hours -- doesn't address the issue.

I hear SUGGESTIONS in a quite old post that the client machine should NOT have FM installed at all.

If that's the case, am I correct that it wouldn't matter WHAT version of FM I run on the new machine?

I appreciate any help available and hope I can return the favor.

thanks

[bcooney]

Yes, you need two copies of FM (and they don't NEED to be the same versions. FM10 and FM11 are fine). This is called peer-to-peer and sounds like exactly what you need. Peer-to-peer puts the burden of backup on you (whereas FMS has builtin scheduled backups).

[Zcast]

My experience (doing exactly the same thing) 10 on one machine, 11 on the other has been fine, except that with one file, when I made changes to the file (originally created with 10), and saved "A COPY" of it with FM 11, my Pc with 10 installed would no longer open that COPY. So, I guess it's safe to say that as long as you only save immediate changes in the original file, you are safe. Just dont "save a copy as" in 11, and expect it to work in 10.

[bvc]

thank you!

I think I must have misremembered the other post I read: I think I need to avoid having a copy of the DBase ITSELF on both machines?

Does this sound right?

[bcooney]

You certainly do not want two copies of the database. You share the file btw two workstations using peer-to-peer sharing. See FMI KB Answer ID 5373 and FM's Help on Sharing and Hosting files.

[bvc]

again - THANK YOU!!!!!