11–20 of 365 posts
I 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'…
Note that any number of cloud startups don’t count as an alternative to access. When these things start it’s as an excel sheet with data that no one will go through the enterprise hassle to get cleared for anywhere but their own hard drive. This needs to sit above excel but still local. You need the entire business case and business value while it’s still in a local directory.
I will say, however, Access has SOME benefit to Information Systems education, especially in a general IS class. These students are marketing, accounting, etc. and so Access offers these students a quick dip into the world of DBs to understand how they operate without requiring they set up a local server or import some complex SQL statement.
This is a super niche group though, one that does not warrant much support. If someone were to develop an online Access-themed learning environment that taught those same basics, it would have the exact same benefits without the tangled Office requirement.
I 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'…
I started to write with Dbase 1 and 2
As 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…
In the end, it's relatively easy to get started with. As TFA mentions, it's really a great option for Power users. A relatively skilled business person can get up to speed with it quickly enough extending from Excel knowledge.
Is there a modern and/or open alternative to this? E.g a SQLite + electron or local web client thing where you could build a simple inventory or similar but you should also be able to scale it to client server when the need occurs 10 years down. Note that any number of cloud startups don’t count as an alternative to access. When these things start it’s as an excel sheet with data that no one will go through the enter…
This 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…