So, you're saying that you'd rather spend time fixing a dead language than making money by using something that already has the functionality? I've heard your argument before, but the reality of it is that very few of us have the time, expertise, or desire to modify the source code. IMO, it's one of the most pervasive lies of Open Source pundits. "If you don't like how it works or you find a bug, you have the source code, so you can fix it".

One other issue is security. More and more, anti-virus and security companies are touting Windows as more secure than OSX or Linux because Microsoft has put discipline into their security efforts.

>Yes it is true that FOSS projects die. But I can't see how Python, Java or Ruby (don't know much about Ruby) can just go away like VFP. The source code is available for all three languages. And therefore I can do as I see fit with the source. I see it more like the market place saying I don't want you to use Python for the project.
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>That said, I don't see it changing much for the near future. But it will change. Today Java jobs are about 5 to 1 for C# jobs. Even if you count all the .Net languages there are more Java jobs available. I gather that information from the job websites. And Python is always in the top 10 of languages used for development. Python books are still being written. So I feel save with Python. But times change and that may go away not but because some company makes it so.
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>And consider this most FOSS languages are cross platform. And most support desktop and web interfaces.