We are in the process of looking at alternatives for our Visual Foxpro development platform. I've read a number of posts where developers are considering .NET, but I've also read a number of posts that say that .NET takes too long to develop business applications and we should use something else. Our needs are quite different than many developers. We develop for a very niche clientele. Here is a little background and then perhaps someone could chime in and express their opinion about .NET or something else.

If you are going to .NET, take a look at Strataframe. The framework was written by guys who originally worked in VFP and it has helped me to get profuctive very quickly.