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Argh! Argh, argh, argh….. argh!       Sure, it's a dandy little database system for people who know nothing about databases, but therein lies the rub. So many companies seem to build up a workflow and a complete company engine around this system and it simply isn't suited for the task. Even when you take out the fact that its owned by Apple now and they're no doubt making it as proprietary as possible, the basic functionality of the entire system is limp and lacking.       The first problem with FileMaker lies in its most alluring feature, which is the aforementioned ease of use. But, easy isn't always good, especially in this sense, due to the fact you get people setting up systems who don't really understand the underpinnings of a database or how it relates together. These drop and drag systems may be fine for a quick record keeping system, but once that system grows to several thousand records (quite a normal thing to have happen) any flaws in the design become incredibly apparent, as seen with the system that I've been working on, which is something that I believe is completely devoid of indexes or any other functions that would alleviate the lengthy searches that we have to go through.       In all fairness, the folks at FileMaker have seen the inherent flaws in their non-relational system and the next release of the software will be a completely relational, full-fledged database system. That's great, but it also scares the willies out of me, since it will be a 1.0 release of the kind of system that most other large database systems are on release 4.1 or greater.       I can sum it all up by a former downstairs neighbor of mine who, when I mentioned FileMaker, immediately said, "Oh, I love FileMaker! It's so easy to do anything in it quickly." It's guy like him that create messes for guys like me, since databases are not quick and easy to set up. If they are, then honestly, they aren't a real database; they're just a glorified flat, text file that someone started calling a database one day. It is very hard to compile and aggregate data in a meaningful way. This is why true database administrators get paid whopping sums of money to do what they do.       If you want a truly powerful database, then you need to get something like a big boy such as Oracle, Sybase, or MS SQL Server. Of course, there are a lot of alternatives like MySQL www.mysql.com that are not only free, but extremely powerful. You mix that in with the web-based admin tool called PHPMyAdmin www.phpmyadmin.net and you've got yourself something that's relatively easy to manage, yet at the same time, wickedly powerful.       We need to get rid of FileMaker. We need to get rid of it now. Hell, I'd even prefer Microsoft Access over FileMaker and that says a lot since I think that that program is really a Handicapped Access of SQL Server, which is a true database, despite being Microsoft.