Sure VFP was declining and there was not much new stuff to add to it just as there is very little to to add to M$$$ Word, Excel or PowerPoint. However, imagine the negative implications if M$$$ decided to say that Excel or Word was the last version as there is nothing new to add - and there really isn't much to add. Think about it, what is really new in Word since the Word 95 version? I have zero plans to go to Vista and no longer use any M$$$ Office products as OpenOffice is free and works great.

If I had to choose a new language I would look seriously at the cross-platform langagues such as Java, Python or Ruby. DotNET is where M$$$ wants us all to go but why not consider alternatives to something that seems to change a lot and ONLY runs under Windows?

Keep an eye on what Google is doing and realize that most wireless devices use Java and as John Ryan points out PBX systems work great on Linux. The Fox runs great and will continue to do so for years to come. Of course the reason for the backlash from the community has to do with the perception that no new releases and eventually(2015) there will be no support from M$$$. Hard to sell new apps using VFP when there are not others out there learning the language to support apps written today that will no doubt run fine for years but will need some support.

>Anyone who thought "VFP wasn't gonna die" had blinders on.
>
>- It was listed on MS's webpage under non-key technologies.
>- There was talk for a number of years what the last date of support for VFP would be.
>- All the off the shelf packages that are/were written in VFP that I'm aware of either have another version written in dotnet, or the VFP version was already completely replaced with a dotnet version already.
>
>Look at the graveyard of technologies that have come and gone over even the last decade. If you are unwilling to accept this as a personal challenge to build up your expertise in another tool and move on, you're probably in the wrong field.
>
>>There are quite many companies that market complex, in-house built with vfp, off-the-shelf products. E.g., two of the leading Dutch bookkeeping packages are entirely written in vfp.
>>
>>These companies now have a really serious problem. The MS decision to stop with further develpment of vfp forces them to invest heavilly in completely rewriting each of their complex packages. Has this problem already got the focussed attention of us all here?
>>
>>For example, does law permit MS to stop further development? Isn't there a case when such a company goes to court, because it feels misled by MS? Afterall, MS has claimed many times in the past that vfp would not gonna die. Those promisses have led decision makers in those companies to decide that it was okay to use vfp as the primary programming language for the development of their complex packages. And now they feel forced to switch to another language, not in 8 years, but starting this year already.
>>
>>And how about those of us who have successfully tried to convince customers that they can extend or modernize an existing vfp application, making it unnecessary for that customer to seek for a complete replacement. Those customers will gonna feel misled, by US, rather than by MS. And why did we make those promisses? Because there were no clear signs in the past that MS would gonna drop further development.