>Well, I wonder why MS got into the Word and Excel business when AmiPro and Lotus 1-2-3 already existed??? I could do what I needed with those, couldn't I??? Same goes for lots of MS products, as well as lots of other people's products. One major reason they do it is that they believe they have a better idea and can make a buck at it!

Obviously because MS doesn't make 1-2-3 and AmiPro and thought they could do it better and make some money from it.

>Why does Ford have Ford and Mercury??? Why does GM continue with at least 4 lines of cars???

Simply for marketing purposes. What's the difference between a Ford Taurus and a Mercury Sable? How about a Chevy Blazer and a GMC Jimmy?


>I don't WANT to have a complex system dependent on several products of high complexity to always work well together. I don't WANT to sell my clients SQL-Server as well as VFP solutions. I don't want to have to LEARN another complex product, or to pay the bucks to a consultant who knows it just to be able to do basic things that VFP could be made to do. I don't want the problems involved in integrating multiple different releases of different products into my base applications (it's bad enough already, not to add more to it!).
>I *do* want a simpler, more straight-forward, more reliable life.

Face it, Jim, no tool will ever do everything. Even if it does, it won't do any of them well (see Works).