I am a user of FM Pro 5.0v3 at debutant/intermediate level. I am a PC User

but have been a Mac user too. (I went to PC platform not by choice but obligation; I am still a Mac lover in my heart!!!) Thank to Filemaker, FM Pro is cross Platform...

Since we, my wife and I, have a new retail business that I would eventually put on the web and also, on my side, I will have to developpe some database (or solutions) that I would like to run as standalone apps or in kiosk mode, is FileMaker Pro Dev 5.5 the way to go?

I am not a MS fan nor I like software or companies that take control of my computer or decide for me what I should like...

My other question is how to compare FM Pro 5.5 developpement platform to others? I dont think I will ever developpe such complex solution as accounting, POS, ... but never know.

How powerfull is it? How fast is serching in very large or complex database? your comments please!!!

Thank you!!!

Filemaker Pro alone is a good a desktop database as any available. For ease of use and ease of development, none can compare.

Filemaker Pro along with Filemaker Server is as good as any other client-server database system and far better than many, but has by far the lowest amount of support needed. We currently are running 5 headless servers and only need to look at them when we want to move databases on or off. Try that with SQL Server or Oracle.

Filemaker Pro interoperating with backend enterprise database systems is as good as anything else really. It is a bit more difficult to setup in some cases, as Filemaker is not really designed as a front end, but the ease of development makes up for this.

I have worked with nearly all of the database systems availble and aside from SPECIAL needs that may require some particular system, I would always recommend Filemaker to anyone.