Walter,

Well, I'll qualify that by saying I can only speak for the U.S. I'll grant that .NET is not a viable choice in environments where hardware is an issue.

I've come across many shops that are either moving, or have plans to move from either VFP or VB to .NET. I also maintain relationships with a few headhunters in the Northeast and in Atlanta, and they've told me that over the last year, .NET has had higher demand than other tools. Right now, someone with production experience in .NET and either SQL or Oracle may be looking at several options. But I agree, Java and the other tools you mentioned are also ways to make a living.

If one is doing well with VFP and has no need to move to another tool, more power to them.

I also agree that developing good database skills is very important - I don't see it as mutually exclusive. Individuals with strong database skills and strong chops in something like .NET (and/or other tools you mentioned) have a good chance of bringing significant value to a client's/employer's table. My current gig is about 1/3 writing C# code, 1/3 developing reports, and 1/3 writing stored procs.

A few months ago I spoke at the Central PA FoxPro Users group - several folks began learning .NET over the last year, and a few more indicated they'd learned about growing .NET development opportunities and planned to learn more about .NET.

This goes back to my original point - Kevin and Markus (and others) have made big contributions towards the knowledge base in moving to .NET, and I think it's pretty cheap for certain folks to negatively characterize their efforts.

Kevin