>PHP
>-no multi-threading (VFP can do this fairly smoothly)
Smoothly is not the way to describe it - multi-processing yes, but all threading is at least part hack,
even (or especially ??) if utilizing the code from Calvin, Christoph of the old COM-solutions by Remus.

>-no ISAPI on Windows (VFP web tools use ISAPI all over the place, so PHP performance will suffer and, no, FastCGI is not nearly as good))
Ok, but for Web backend Linux is not a bad story ;-)

>-no intermediate byte code (like JIT in .NET) or automatic Garbage collection (VFP check, check)
Yupp but PHP-2-C compiler is a pro for PHP, and a switchable garbage collection (5.3?)
if it is really a dumb implementation (echoing some thoughts here, not measured myself!)
I consider equal or a plus for PHP.

>-of course, no integrated database
SQLite might be made a poor substitute, but my main gripe ;-)

>-language is harder to learn than VFP imo
full ACK - even if beauty is in...

>-not a great COM story (VFP has an excellent COM story, of course)
Again - balanced partly by option for linux backend. Depends on use case.

regards

thomas