>Hi Mike,
>
>I've been watching this thread for a while and your one statement here, "375,000 - 500,000 is still a pretty insignificant number in MS eyes ", made me think of a point that doesn't seem to have been stated by anyone yet. The majority of developers in VFP today have come the route of FoxPro or other xBASE languages with a small percentage of new developers. New developers look at all the M$ hype of VB and the non-existent marketing of VFP an decide VB is the way to go - I know I would if I was them. Kind of a chicken and the egg type idea isn't it? M$ puts more into VB than VFP because of the developer base size difference, yet this difference has been caused by M$.
>
>My $0.02 Cdn. worth which is actually worth crap lately :-)
>
Actually, crap can be quite expensive (remembering last batch of 'Fox' contractors we had - doncha just love people hired by people who don't know what the hiree's are supposed to be doing?)

(Dragging out soapbox)

Again, I think the point that is being missed is that MicroSoft OWNS Fox and can do what they bleedin' well please with it, including turning it into and interactive Internet Dungeons and Dragons game if they wish. They own it, they have the power over it and whether or not they listen to what we, the developers, have to say about it is moot. Who gave them that power? WE DID! We gave them that power over our professional lives by accepting new releases of software with known bug lists longer than the actual source code listings, the 'fixes' that end up breaking more than they fix, the rearrangement of application functions, etc. Let's face it....who out there could release custom software to their customers as buggy as MS does AND GET AWAY WITH IT???

How do we fix this? I really don't know. Ideally, we would quit buying new versions until MS started paying attention to what the buying public wants. Realistically, that wouldn't get MS's attention, it would just give them a reason to quit producing the product. But sitting and bitching about the situation will NOT get anything done except hang a title on Fox programmers (does grumpy strike a chord?)

Now, before anyone starts with the "If you don't like it, leave" mail - sorry, been a Fox'er since 1988 (FoxBase) and have come up through the ranks of the various Fox versions. I AM a Fox Programmer, along with a Pascal Programmer, FORTRAN Programmer, C Programmer and a COBOL Programmer. I will continue to recommend Fox for ANY small, medium and some large database systems. And I will continue to adapt to any changes MS may see fit to make in the product because I have no one to blame but me for giving them the right to do so.

(climbing off soapbox)

Thank you for your time.