That's not what I said at all. What I said is that Microsoft *DOES* listen to developers and has added features in both VFP and .Net/VS/C#/VB/etc as a result of those requests.

Now, if you're saying that MS didn't listen to customers who wanted VFP to live on, you're still not paying attention. The number of people using...and from Microsoft's view, buying...VFP every year was decreasing. That to me, says, "Customers have moved on to other things." The cost of maintaining the VFP team was greater than the revenue it generated.

If you think Microsoft is the only company that does this, I'll point to Sony (Betamax), General Motors (Humvee, Pontiac, Saturn), Ford (Mercury), American Motors (completely gone), Sun (gone), Apple's change to Intel chips, and the list can go on.

Publicly traded companies are NOT in the business of pleasing customers. They are in the business of increasing shareholder value. If some product reduces that value, the product is generally discontinued. As a small company, you personally can talk directly with every one of your customers. Ballmer cannot possibly do that at Microsoft. He *has* to rely on employees to listen and make the product decisions that are best for increasing shareholder value for the product they work on.

Think of this another way, if one of your customers gives you less and less business, and another gives you more and more, which one will get the most of your attention and time? That's what happened with Fox vs. .Net.

>(<_<)
>I lost the trail.
>All you state below is what I say. Microsoft needs to be forced or the people to on there own. Is this really the way you like to deal with?
>Part of the why my customers stay with me (and I'm a start up) is that I solve there requests and listen to them the first way - and not voluntaray my employees.
>
>Lutz