Charles, agreed- those who want to retain their Guru status have seized the opportunity to get in early in other areas. Gurus who remained in VFP would now face a tough time recreating themselves in other spheres that already have fiercely competitive gurus and ranks of wannabes with a significant head-start. ;-)

I agree there is a "buzz" from being part of new growing stuff. The difference I see is that with previous waves of change there was explosive business advantage to be had from adopting new technologies- for customers, I mean. These days it's not always as visible. It seems that the "customer" for some of this stuff is the tech community rather than the person down the chain who we expect/hope to pay for it all. ;-) The resistance to cool new stuff like Vista indicates that people are looking for value and if they can't see it, they refuse to change. I guess people can be called luddites and other names, but as they say in veterinary science: "the animal is always right." ;-) IOW if the behavior doesn't match the theory then the theory is wrong. ;-)

I've spent time with NET since its early beta. But it's never matched the buzz I got in those early Fox days when each new release truly offered new stuff for which customers would queue. Meaning that value increasingly revolves around the developer rather than the products they use. The ability to program using "tool x" becomes a commodity when "tool x" no longer delivers business (customer) value merely from its use. IMHO that's what people need to be considering carefully.