>When sales of VFP 8 and 9 were low, it made it hard for the team to argue against management for another release. Huge sales of 9 would have provided an argument that there was still money to be made.

>All that said, absolutely, declining sales are the result of Microsoft's failure to market outside the Xbase community.

Hard for the team to argue against management? I have no doubt. But my supposition is that mgt. caused the situation by telegraphing their lack of support for and perhaps distaste for VFP. So those low sales - assuming you are right, I have never seen numbers myself - were a direct cause of mgt. decisions. Responsible mgt. that cared about the product and community would have said "we have not been supporting this product, no wonder sales are low -let's beef up support and sales will follow." M$ is a great marketing company. They know what marketing will do and what lack of it will do. To act ignorant and blame it on the customer may fool some people, but it's not fooling me. Why would they ever expect sales to increase on a product they ignore? You can talk about this all you want, but it all comes back to them telegraphing the message, then blaming the situation on the recipient of that message. Andy, Marcia, and Cathy have fallen for that hook, line, and sinker and their comments maligned this community. I resent that.