> I agree with most of your conditions, however there are instances I think when just because the improvement is available with a 3rd party tool does not mean that it should be rejected.

I would agree with you if Sedna was a traditional product release. But given the reality of a tiny, tiny, tiny team that will have lots of .NET future distractions, I think we need to be very, very focused on what we ask for.

There's no benefit to asking for 10 improvements, none of which get implemented, vs. asking for 3 improvements that the team can actually manage.

> Of course, perhaps MSFT could purchase the 3rd party tool and incorporate the features to the base product (that has been done in the past as well).

That's a WONDERFUL IDEA !!!!!

... and there's good precedence for it, ala the stripped down versions of Installsheild, Crystal Reports, and 3rd party ActiveX products that ship with many Microsoft developer tools.

Advantages to Microsoft:

1. Bundling one or two 3rd party tools into Sedna would be a wonderful gift to the VFP community and a great way for MS to say thank you for the community's 12+ years of loyalty. Much more effective than spending a ton of money on marketing .NET to this community which should wait until VFP features begin to show up in .NET.

2. Bundling 3rd party tools into Sedna would not take any resources away from the Sedna development team. More features for Sedna. No impact on development schedule. Sounds good to me!

3. Microsoft could re-coup some/all of the costs of its bundling efforts by charging (or charging more) for Sedna. Microsoft also gains revenue by having more of the community upgrade to VFP 9 in order to enjoy the benefits of the Sedna bundles. Spreading the cost of high quality product bundles across the entire Senda purchase group sounds like a great strategy. How much extra could be included in Sedna if it was priced $50, $100, or even $150 more???

Your idea sounds like a WIN - WIN - WIN scenario for Microsoft, the VFP community, and the VFP vendors selected to participate in this promotion.

BTW: My vote for a 3rd party product bundle would be Xitech Cryptor.

I wonder if this discussion should move to a re-captioned thread?

Malcolm