ASP.NET is more verbose. Surely that makes it a better tool for software development!

Surely. We all know that the most verbose politicians get the most done. ;-)

At least my company pays me to do ASP.NET. That being the case I really do not care. Why be efficient when you can be "Microsoft Compliant", and support company mandated policies and procedures at the same time?

That's a supremely rational decision, Tom. If everybody shared your scenario, we would not be having this conversation. ;-)

I'm sure everybody here is well aware of all the options available to them.

Some fairly astonishing suggestions have been made about open source, comparing it to various failed MS competitors and predicting a steep curve learning Swahili. All I'm saying is that the "learning curve" isn't that bad. Rather than grappling with LAMP, I've offered ways to experiment right there on your Windows workstation. I didn't post the NET code to make NET look bad: I posted it because a comment was made that PHP looks "godawful". Compared to what? And lets not forget that there is *heaps* more LAMP out there. If moving to NET because there are millions more developers makes sense, then it makes even more sense to move to LAMP. Curious that this argument is only ever used to support the NET jump. IMHO it's a dopey argument- like saying we should use chopsticks at every meal because more people do that. So lets expend a bit of effort focusing on the technical and political pros and cons. ;-)

IMHO VFP people have shown time and again that they are at least as capable as their detractors of assessing evidence and making sound decisions. All I wanted to do was ensure that PHP et al weren't stuffed into the "too hard" basket because of misinformation. That's it.