That one's easy: adapt VFP to the changing technologies. The key to VFP was the ease of access to data, and the ease of programming. Extending it, making it cross-platform, putting new technologies in, updating the UI, etc. Keep it easy, keep it adaptable. If MS had done that, Lianja would not have been created, because it would already exist. And we would have had it for over a decade already.

It took a Lianja user about 10 minutes to integrate KendoUI from Telerik into Lianja. Well, he didn't do real data binding yet, but Lianja natively does oData Queries returning oData strings, so the binding isn't going to be all that difficult. MS could have done this. With 1/100th the resources (or less) of what they put into .Net.

When the OS team rejected .Net (and thereby trashed the promise that .Net would be securely integrated with the OS), the jig was up. That was back in about 2002, I believe.

Hank

>>You might have missed some interesting magazine articles in the early 2000's questioning Ballmer's strategy - eg I remember a very good one in the Economist - I wish I had torn it off.
>>
>>To me, all these language and infrastructure issues were valid before Y2k - like 4-stroke engine became a standard in the 20's.
>>
>>Because he never believed in the outcome of the Internet, Ballmer just applied what he learnt at business school (AKA Gartner Magic Quadrant) - once you have a large share on a growing market, you're immune.
>>
>OK, so again, Baller was wrong.
>
>You're implying that there was a correct strategy and he missed it.
>
>What was it?