Blobs versus Filesystem?

Hi, I'm trying to find out about the relative merits of storing files (images, documents, etc) as blobs inside a database versus using the filesystem (unix) to do the job and just storing filenames in the database. I've seen several comments in various places with arguments for and against, but I can't find them again now. Does anyone have any pointers to summary articles on this subject, or strong opinions on the subject? Some of the arguments that I've seen against the use of blobs were based on the unreliability of blob implimentations. Is that mostly a historical factor which is no longer valid? Thanks for any info/comments. Douw. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Douw Steyn - University of Cape Town Physics Department | |dost@physci.uct.ac.za phone (27)(21)650-3362 fax (27)(21)650-3342| +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+