David,

FP came into being to manage and manipulate local data efficiently- I'm sure you're one of those who remember the old days when accessing a table from more than one PC required a mysterious addon.

Decades later it seems that this is the only truly differentiating feature of VFP. So much really great stuff has been added on... but in fairness, most of it can be done as easily using other more fashionable tools. Equally, what business value for customers can we not deliver with VFP today? Usually answers are expressed in terms of the latest technical gizmo... and we've deviated from the business benefit argument again.

So in 2005, perhaps there is no point adding another level to VFP. It is a mature product and there is no "killer" feature needed to make it viable. Cynics say that what MS really wants is for all of us to up sticks and move to dotNET. One way to be smart about that is to add dotNET features so VFP developers can start to offer (say) Avalon as part of their apps. There are several reasons why this is very smart for MS, not least that it offers no downside for current VFP developers. Meantime MS can get on with loading the local dataset stuff into mainstream dotNET.

IMHO there is no need for FUD about any of it. As you note, 2014 is quite a long way away. Many people here won't even be developers in 2014 so perhaps they are better advised to spend time with their kids who will never be this age ever again.