>I just don't think that many people work with a software tool if they don't find it that comfortable to do.

Now that we've meandered into this direction... it's mostly not the case. Proven by existence of Cobol.

When you get a job, they probably ask you, on your first day at work, what is your preferred language.

>Because something like VFP diverges from a tool like Java in some important areas, most developers will never like VFP. That's why you see people refering to it as "old technology". And obviously now that thought process will never change.

Now this is why I always chuckle when someone says that "market will fix that". If the market was able to do that all by itself, what's the purpose of advertising? You just build a better product and win.

Obviously, there are all kinds of sneaky tricks out there, one of the oldest being to give free or discounted software to academics, hoping that in a few years they'll teach the next generation how to use what you gave them. Apple did it, Microsoft did it, whoever can does it.

And as it works, the professors will tout their topic as the best and most advanced thing since the invention of the transistor, at the price of bashing anything they didn't try or even know about. And their students, specially the non-geek ones, will soak the wisdom.