>>Is SQL Server immature technology? Are there not easy ways to use it in .NET apps?
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>I don't think that is the point. MS SQL server is very, very mature. However it is not a development tool like VFP. Its server software to serve data to external processes in SET ORIENTED chuncks. It takes other front end software to provide a GUI to the user. VFP has all-in-one.
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>VFPs strength is that it allows for direct access of data in a RECORD ORIENTED approach. You basically can write a program using a few BROWSE FOR commands which allows the user to search, modify and store their data within only a few lines of code. Now try doing that in any other solution. Sure implementation of new builders, wizards and other 3rd party framework solutions might also get the work done, however it does not come out of the box.
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>Bottom line, is that if you're talking data, VFP still is king. Not from a storage pov (SQL server is way better at it), but just from the pov of accessing and manipulation side of it. Most of the times it only takes one or two commands to get at the data you need.
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Personally I do not consider a record oriented approach a virtue. The only two things I would describe as epiphanies in my career as a software developer so far have been the Macintosh and Dr. Codd's principles of relational databases. It was a dense piece about mathematical set theory that wound up changing the direction of software development for the next 35 years (and counting). I would call that leaving footprints.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_F._Codd