Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
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Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#2The amount of people I work with who use Access who do not understand even the very basics of computing is shocking.
And half my help tickets now are fixing Access files from multiple users trying to use them at once...
Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#3Ugh, what a completely appropriate topic for the week of halloween. Zombies, nightmares, and a lot of late fucking nights saving people from themselves.
Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#4[deleted]
Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#5As the author points out, Access fills an interesting niche where Excel isn't quite enough, but a SQL database and all the stuff that goes along with it is way too much. On top of that, it's completely local so you don't have to pay for licenses or worry about data policies. That niche is big enough to sustain Access pretty much indefinitely.
I think the lesson here is that business users more often than not want something that 1) just works, 2) they can actually understand, and 3) doesn't require learning and setting up a bunch of other stuff to maintain or upgrade. It's easy to forget how big of a step up it is from Excel to a SQL-based application (or similar other business needs elsewhere) and how big of a barrier that is.
Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#6As the author points out, Access fills an interesting niche where Excel isn't quite enough, but a SQL database and all the stuff that goes along with it is way too much. On top of that, it's completely local so you don't have to pay for licenses or worry about data policies. That niche is big enough to sustain Access pretty much indefinitely. I think the lesson here is that business users more often than not want som…
Access also generally comes bundled with Office, so for a lot of people it's the tool they already have at hand. And people are always going to reach first for a tool they already have at hand, if one's available that looks even remotely like it will suit their needs.
There are probably better database solutions for just about anything you'd want to build with Access, but getting something new requires doing research, getting approval, maybe allocating money, etc. Whereas if you have Office, Access is already sitting there on your computer, just waiting for you to pick it up and start making bad decisions.
Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#7The reason that both Access and Excel use is so prevalent in corporate “shadow IT” land is because there are many parts of the business that have problems for which only a negative or marginal business-case can be made for IT to solve it (given the “get out of bed” costs of most IT departments). It’s a barrier-to-entry problem. Excel and Access are cheap enough and fly under the corporate IT radar (no involvement needed), that these marginal problems can be addressed in a self-serve manner.
I’ve worked in organisations that have tried to kill these tools off but unless you can lower the cost-to-play or offer a “better” self/serve alternative, you will fail.
Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#8This is the question I always wanted to ask, I almost wrote an Ask HN...
Who use Microsoft Access in 2019?!
An obvious case is creating a glorified/enhanced Excel for some specific office tasks, another case is that some applications use ".mdb" backend.
But that's all? edit: What I'm interested in is cases of using Access for something other than a specific Excel-like office task - it seems Access is still used for some serious business in many businesses (pun not intended).
Also, if your office does use Access just for Excel-like tasks, but has overused it so much, please comment as well, I'd like to hear your story.
Who use Microsoft Access in 2019?
Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#9I remember the first Access version. Wasn't cheap (for my budget at the time) and I got it as a birthday gift. Wasn't my first contact with database (dBase III Plus, anyone?) but came with 5 huge manuals that covered a lot of relational databases, and was where I first heard of normalizations rules.
If it was easy for a teen in the first months with a computer, must be easy nowadays for any non-tech person who doesn't receive enought attention from IT because building a system would cost too much for each sprint/function points/hours.
And it won't die unless things like that change.
Re: Microsoft Access: The Database Software That Won't Die
#10This is the question I always wanted to ask, I almost wrote an Ask HN... Who use Microsoft Access in 2019?! An obvious case is creating a glorified/enhanced Excel for some specific office tasks, another case is that some applications use ".mdb" backend. But that's all? edit: What I'm interested in is cases of using Access for something other than a specific Excel-like office task - it seems Access is still used for s…
The only use case I've seen is a charity using it to manage their donors as a crm.