Why do I need New Era?

Dear Friends :-) I'm now the proud owner of Visual C++ and Visual BASIC because the local INFORMIX rep told me New Era needs Visual C++ to COMPILE the code. So, like a good boy I installed Visual C++. I figure it's a good idea to learn these products first before delving into New Era. I have not aquired the New Era as of this writing. I bought both the BASIC and the C++ for 'completeness'...Now on to buying another hard drive as they take up a lot of space. After some reading of the Visual C++ books I also purchased, it became clear to me why INFORMIX is going in the direction they're headed. Visual C++ comes with a form designer, and ODBC SDK, and all kinds of goodies you need to go client server to ANY data base. The big question is, WHY DO I NEED NEW ERA? And sadly, WHY DO I NEED TO STAY INFORMIX? Microsoft is doing a VERY smart thing by dumping A LOT of value into this product for the price. They GIVE AWAY the ODBC drivers to hit ANY data base. I know I can access ( no pun intended ) any data base, spec out ANY business plan, large or small, and develop client server with this product. Am I too premature in my judgement? I was quoted $4550.00 US for New Era. What am I getting for this price? Cars used to cost this much. I can buy a UnixWare server and a new PC for this kind of money, along with software, and NEVER need INFORMIX to use as a data base. If I was in a large corporation where they have oodles of money, just a 10-user license alone would be $45,500.00. Is this a good value? Maybe I'm just cheap, but I thought the whole idea to business was to MAKE money and not spend it foolishly. If INFORMIX really wants to be the leader, why don't they take notes from Bill Gates? I hate contributing to Microsoft, but they ARE driving the market, and business moves in the lines of least resistance. If I can develop client server for 10% of the cost of INFORMIX, I am going to do it. And imagine where that leaves ORACLE and SYBASE. Keep in mind when Windows 95 hits it will be a many-to-many host environment, running WINDOWS, and some kind of network. The idea of many-terminals-one-host will soon be a thing of the past, and the data base of choice will be the cheap-but-good-one, because the data base will be among several locations. Distributed and cheap, just like the hardware. Inexpensive hardware changed this industry, and there's a few folks up in the Pacific Northwest who said you can do it with software too. ( If I'm wrong why are they going to bundle SE with New Era? ) I hope I'm wrong. But if I'm not, well then it wouldn't be the first time would it... New Era should be priced competitively with PowerBuilder, and all the other products out there that address client server. Whoever gets the best product on the market to the largest number of users is going to set the standard. Just ask Bill Gates. :-)