It depends on your objectives. Web apps are hot so despite the fact that I think the web interface s..ks, that's what developers want to develop and so that's what managers want to implement. It's a resume thing. Call me old-fashioned but I really like the client/server model. It provides a rich client interface and optimum data management efficiency.
Why do you think that Access is not "real"? I agree with Jet not being the data repository of choice, but Access makes a great front end. A few years agoI was working on a large development effort to make a consolidated Client database for a multi-national company. The company consisted of numerous subsidiaries each with their own Client database. Some had several. My job was to identify all these sources of client data and consolidate them, cleaning up the data in the process. Meanwhile 4 programmers were working on developing a new front end using VB and Sybase. Then I designed and wrote a dozen mainframe CICS transactions in COBOL to pull the data from the new client/server system and update the databases of the legacy systems since they were not being converted. All that work took me a year. The 4 programmers were still working on the VB forms. I was bored waiting for them to finish so I developed the ENTIRE fe application in Access against the Sybase tables in my spare time over about three weeks. The system was fully functional and could have been distributed and used as is. However, the client wanted a "real" appliction. It was three more months before the VB fe was ready for beta testing. Now, am I that good and were they that bad that I could build with Access in three weeks an application that took four experienced programmers over a year to build with VB? Well I am that good (pat on back) and they were pretty bad but I was also using the better tool.
