>Hi Pertti,
>
>>>MS never killed VFP, VFP is very much alive, and will remain alive for many, maaaaany years. The thing is VFP is now an adult, and does not need his mother's support anymore.
>>
>>Until a version of Windows comes along that kills VFP. Could happen in 2015, could happen in 2999. But since MS is not committing to anything more with VFP beyond 2015, the prudent business approach IMO is to act as if that is the retirement day for VFP. It just becomes too much of a gamble to build anything more on it after that. So, the way I see it, by announcing the end of support MS in effect (for practical reasons) actually DID kill VFP as of 2015.
>>
>
>At first, I was concerned about that too, but now I don't worry about it. I don't know any more than you do, but IMO VFP apps will continue to run as long as MS supports 32-bit. They won't do it for you or me, but rather the millions of users that depend on Fox apps. Those users put Fox apps on the required backward compatibility list, and the Windows devs can't do anything that kills those apps (even past 2015), at least not without some kind of workaround. I could be wrong, but MS has a pretty good track record in this regard. Sure there will be minor glitches, but we already deal with that kind of stuff. I think the real necessity to move away from Fox will come from the need to support new technology/requirements (64-bit, WPF, security, etc.), not that VFP apps will stop running anytime soon. With that in mind, we will probably be using something else by 2015, but VFP will still be in our toolbox.

I wouldn't be surprised if VFP applications ran still in 2999. After all, I still have a few FPW 2.6 apps running out there, and nobody's complaining (except for the crappy -- in modern standards -- UI...) But I am not counting on those apps for my business, just like I won't be counting on VFP after 2014 at the latest. By then my apps will have been written in something else, no question about that.