Yes I'm sure VFP and other M$ languages will run faster on windows than say Python or Ruby. That said I don't care much. Python (don't use Ruby) runs on android, iphone along with the big 3 (and most likely any other platform). That's what is important to me.

I switched to python because it reminded me of VFP. And so far I have not found a thing I was able to do with VFP that can't be done with Python. That includes all the data access (that's what VFP such a great tool for me), graphics, and general ease of use.

But before you go down the road of which is best or the fastest etc.. I told you my reasons for using Python - which are
1. Python reminded me of VFP (mostly in the way code is written)
2. it's easy to read, it is cross platform
3. it has a very large following (larger that VFP for sure).

BTW I believe Python is a first class citizen on Windows.

Johnf