>Although I am not sure if your first statement is 100% correct. M$ invents new technology every couple of years so "WPF is the way to go" might turn into "WPF are won't get updated by MS in the future" in no time {g}.
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>Keep in mind how long WinForms was maintained by MS.
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>There is a philosophy in this industry that one should be learning a new technology every 6-9 months. The advantage is that the person becomes so accustomed to managing change that they've incorporated it into their thought process.
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>Suppose you managed a vertical market application, and you have a few dozen customers. You will want your customers to be running the most recent version in production. When customers demand enhancements, you surely will only want to place those enhancements in the most recent code base. Imagine if your customers squaked about upgrading to version 5.0 of your product, citing some of the same logic being used here.
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When I upgrade customers from vertical application version X to version Y, they don't have to relearn the application. Even if I rewrite my app from VFP to WinForms, the look and feel and the flow of the application will be the same. So that people can continue doing their job without weeks or months (as is the case in changing development platform) to relearn. So your logic, IMHO, does not apply here.

>Do I think that Microsoft's direction results in some pain and complication of developer's lives? Sure. But I see signs that they are headed in a direction of simplifying (relatively) their product offerings. Often my observation is that they generally go through a 3-phase evolution:
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I disagree here too. In terms of the word "simplifying". Again IMHO M$ is becoming the company (in terms of their development platforms) of a few instead of many. With every new technology they lose a big chunk of the development community, either staying with previous technology or moving to something different.

>- Implement functionality and release
>- Greatly enhance that functionality in response to customer demands and release
>- Fine tune and clean up any integration issues and release one last time
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Again, disagree. Response to the changes with new technologies is not as fast. I know you will disagree because you are a guru; that is, you are a minority who is capable of keeping up and being productive.

>It can be a 12/18 months or even years to go through those iterations.
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>I'm drifting somewhat here, but my point is that it's helpful to step back and look at the bigger picture of what they're trying to accomplish.

I am trying to help my customers do their job and at the same time make a living. Very simple.

Thank you for your input.