Hmmm, if I remember correctly (and this knowledge may be out of date) MS Access is not JDBC-compatible and requires the ODBC-JDBC Bridge in order to be accessed from Java. And (again this may be old knowledge) the ODBC-JDBC Bridge is not pure Java, so it may not be able to run under Mac OS.
What I'd do is to find out more about the cross-platform compatibility of the
JDBC drivers you are using.
With regards to replacement databases, since OS X is a UNIX platform (unless you are using OS 9, that is) it will run most UNIX databases. I've had PostgreSQL (a favorite of mine) runnning well under OS X, and have heard that MySQL runs without difficulty as well.
If your app is written to be database independent,
you should be able to swap out Access for one of these database with little difficulty.
hth,
bear
P.S. Anyone with more current knowledge about MS Access with JDBC should jump in!
[ August 22, 2003: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]