Hi friends!!! I'm developing a data base to manage the bills, orders, receipts etc... for my company. There are a lot relationships. My boss force me to develop it with FileMaker, because he loves it a lot, but I would like to do it with MySql (with Java, PHP or whatever) because I don't have too much confidence in FileMaker.

What do you recommend me?

there's no reason why you can't do it with both
use filemaker for the front end (the UI) and MySQL for the backend (the data).

from what I saw a few years ago I thought filemaker was pretty dire, however it can look glossy and glitsy, and most important of all for the appearance led its made by Apple so it must be ..........

Very True! I use both! It really is the best way to go!

As I'm in the same boat, I can definitely say that you CAN do pretty much everything you would want to do in FileMaker. Such as hosting user connections... Instant Web Publishing, etc. I'm slowly grasping the database concept, and if you already have the experience with database design/programming I don't see why you wouldn't be able to utilize the software.

The nice thing I have found out about FileMaker is the ability to scrap your T.O. relationships and visually start over. I've used the relationship section in manage database as a whiteboard quite a few times... But i'm just a novice when it comes to databases & ERDs.

I'm sure that with a proper education on database design & theory you can quite effectively utilize this software, but you could also utilize any other database technologies and achieve something similar if not better. I wouldn't consider FileMaker to be the "end all, be all" solution to database design... but if you want to get your feet wet, it's not something you are going to mess up easily.

FileMaker has a lot of UI quirks, so if you MUST use the software be aware there are limitations on what you can do and how you can do things.