Christof,

That's a brilliant summary IMHO.

There are *tens of millions* of small customers out there. The majority of almost every first-world economy is generated by small firms, the vast majority of which have five or fewer employees. There is no IT Department. There probably isn't even an IT budget, which means an unexpected $5,000 expense for a new server and licenses may blow the owner's planned holiday with the kids or force them to keep the unreliable old truck a bit longer.

The whole concept of "customer selecting a development tool" is foreign- as is the concept of people in crisp white shirts sipping lattes in day-long- brainstorming sessions considering the pro's and con's of the various options.

What matters is cost- most importantly, up-front cost. Deferred cost isn't such a problem- they're used to that, with equipment leases with deferred final purchase payments and scheduled replacements. So the fact that their program will lose MS support in 2015 is of no great import.

Of course there is an issue of support: if it is true (as we are told almost weekly by one of our friendly ex-VFP buddies) that the pool of VFP expertise has become a muddy puddle, that's a concern. But if you're talking about millions of potential customers, IMHO "the market" will supply service as it always does when there are vast numbers of waving fists with dollars in them. We *know* there are vast numbers of FP/VFP apps out there and there is a good living to be had looking after them.

I've been blessed to spend my entire IT career with very large customers, but even I can see that the above is true. It seems odd that critics who are themselves in very small firms or one-man consultancies cannot see that it would be impossible for somebody in their situation in the automotive, food, construction or some other industry, to behave as they assert the market behaves.