Microsoft Corp’s Access is full of bugs, is prone to crash, offers inadequate links to other databases, does not offer a customisation kit, and has poor documentation – and it’s a runaway best-seller – at $100, who’s complaining? Well a lot of people are, but that is only a weakness of perception, since personal computer software these days is fast approaching the complexity of mainframe software, and no-one would think of entrusting live data to a new mainframe database before the thing was in its third major release – that means version 3, not 1.3; according to the Wall Street Journal, Access sold 375,000 copies in the first six weeks of marketing and Microsoft has taken orders for 500,000 – the total database market last year excluding Access was under 1.25m copies; the price goes up to $500 on January 31, by when Microsoft looks to have sold 750,000 copies.
