>SNIP
>I wouldn't be so sure that a big company would have "hard evidence" before embarking on a change of course. There are lots of factors that can play in such decisions, ego and bias and being uninformed being three biggies. It could be something so simple as seeing much more ad space devoted to VB (jobs, training, add-on products, etc) or even just some bad or inaccurate reporting regarding VFP. An "account manager" is most concerned with keeping an account "in the fold" and if the management at Sprint show a 'leaning' toward VB then he is not about to argue. Should they indicate Powerbuilder or Delphi or whatever non-MS product you like, the exchanges might be quite different, even along the lines of "you really want to toss your heavy investment in VFP????".
>

I can tell you from first-hand experience that the people who make these decisions are often the ones with the least amount of knowledge in a) software development languages, b) software development timeframes and costs, and c) the impact such changes will make on the long-term efforts of an IS development team.

Upper management, even (or especially) IS department heads are usually several years removed from development, if they ever did it to begin with. And most of them can't find their objects with both hands.

Just my bitter $0.02!