MS Access

Get ready for a laugh, my friends, controversy follows:
1994-2006
MS Access may be a lousy database, but it is a great interface and terrific reporting engine to any other database, at least from a windoze desktop. I have been an enthusiastic user of MS Access, both using and over-using it since I learned it in 1994 to maintain my own time recording application.
I have also used it to do quickie corporate work throughout the years, and to put together internal use databases for work groups that would otherwise have to do without.
Two different year-long jobs, one in 1998 and one in 2000, started out as MS-Access and migrated the database structure itself to SQL Server, once the kinks had been worked out. Both retained the MS-Access interface, using these to link to the data on the more serious platform.
This same technique works great with MySQL too, I have done backend MySQL and front-end MS-Access, that works really well when you have a large data set but need the power of the easy to develop and maintain MS-Access interface.
I get a lot of grief from my serious programmer friends for being an enthusiast, but if it works well, I use it.