Walter, while I agree that etecnologia can expect an easier road than MS, we'll never know what would have happened if MS's proposition for a NET port was "retain your local data engine but embrace standard NET stuff for the rest." We were told that the local data stuff could be lost and "the community" agreed there would be no point porting the rest. IOW people are not completely wed to "the VFP way" for frontends and the rest of it. When an effort was nevertheless made to port some functions, there was little interest in that and certainly no "whining" that people expected some function or other.