>It really is quite simple. Foxpro was killed by Microsoft because it didn't have a big enough MSFT executive cheerleader. No cheerleader, no marketing budget, which leads to diminishing sales, then ostracization, and finally justification for cancellation. Hey look! A self-fulfilling prophecy. That VFP made it all the way to version 9 is a testament to that small but remarkable development team and a fiercely loyal following by VFP developers.
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>I don't blame MSFT for making the decision, but I'll be damned if I'm moving to .NET if I can help it. What's the point? If I'm going to write a vertical market app from scratch wouldn't I choose a multi-OS development platform so I can grab that growing group of Mac users too?
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>The future is not all that bright for Microsoft. Google owns search. Facebook owns social. Twitter owns real time. Android is killing it in mobile. Apple is capturing the young minds. Apache dominates web server. Microsoft still owns the corporate desktop but with HTML5 allowing better UI, a paradigm shift is underway where end-users will be back to the equivalent of dumb terminals which will significantly reduce corporate IT staff minions. Google Chrome OS or something similar will own corporate desktops in the coming decade.
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>I see nothing but dwindling sales for Microsoft in the next decade. MS Office upgrades are pointless. Desktop OS upgrades are pointless. Server OS upgrades are pointless. WP7 is so far behind I doubt it will ever make much of a dent... even with the Nokia deal. Microsoft used to be a pack of piranhas that destroyed its competitors. Now it's a pack of cannibalistic piranhas in a slowly shrinking fishbowl.

Vivid and entertaining ( "cannibalistic piranhas" ) - thanks :)

Of course, one should remember Murphy's Golden Rule - he who has the gold, makes the rules. And MS still has a lot of gold.