Our application is extensive and complex and has lots of UI.
VFP's UI is dated and "simplistic" although blazingly fast compared to Winforms.
We also need more powerfull data visualisation / viewing / drill down capabilities.
.Net offers more compeling UI controls that facilitate data analysis in modern paradigms.
There are hardly any vendors are doing great ActiveX controls that VFP compatible.

Also we are concerned about the longevity of the VFP UI controls in relation to future versions of Windows.
Remember VFP's UI control's are not Native Windows controls like in VB6 but are a graphical contrivance native to VFP.
We are concerned that VFP's UI may "break" under future versions of Windows wether it be Windows 8 or Windows 9 but that day is sure to come and we do not want to be faced with a major rewrtie at short notice.
Also VFP will fall behinf in SQL Server compatibilty over time. Etc , etc, etc.

For us and in relation to our application, .Net offers us modern and more powerfull UI capabilities and then to be on a tech platform that will be compatible with future Windows versions.

Put another way, had MS not abandoned VFP many years ago, this thread would never have been started.

Our application is such that it is best suited to a Windows Client architecture and WinForms, although "dead ended", is a good fit and allows for very complex UI, maybe not as glassy as WPF or Silverlight.



> What advantage does WinForms have over VFP? It does get you to .NET, but for me, I need a compelling reason to switch, not make a lateral move. WPF and Silverlight have more to offer. Of course, everyone's requirements are different, but something to think about.