Windows 7: Ms Access 2010 or MySQL

Hi all
I LIKE Ms office 2010 so far -- although in the beta I've found - and posted previously - a couple of errors in Outlook 2010 when using IMAP as the email option.

I've tried however the ACCESS DATABASE and it really seems week against the FREE MySQL - even when you don't want to use MySQL as a server.

The only thing Access 2010 has going for it is that it seemlessly can create tables from EXCEL spreadsheets directly from which you can then run some simple queries. Quite a handy feature for running in Stand Alone mode on a workstation.

So as a Database for a single application on a STAND ALONE workstation Access is fine but IMO it's not robust enough for a shared database on which you would actually want to do some serious updates and queries on even a SMALL office LAN.

Anybody else think that Access isn't really strong enough to use as a "Proper" productive small database on an office LAN even for a one off type of application.

I know that MS have SQL server but that's overkill for what I need -- however Access goes the other way - it's just not robust enough.

MySQL works just fine -- but it's a bit of a bother getting EXCEL data into it which is where ACCESS scores. The SQL language on both databases is similar so no probs there.

I'd love to see ACCESS beefed up a bit -- MS Office is all about the OFFICE SUITE operating seamlesslessly -- and where it works it works great -- but a weak DB application really lets it down.


Cheers
jimbo