Foremost, you have to use the right tool for the job you are tasked to do. IMHO, there is no better development tool than VFP as a front-end app to Oracle or SQL-Server databases. So much flexibility and options for connectivity. You can also use the other tools in VS to web-enable your apps. Plus you can have multiple datasources in on VFP DBC that are transparent to the end-user.

I just deployed an app that has local VFP tables and views, remote views derived from an Oracle database warehoused in North Carolina [all my users are in our Dallas office], and remote views to a MS Access database. All of this is run through a single VFP DBC. Our users login ONCE with their own ID and password and have access to all of the data they need.

Can all this be done in VB, Delphi, Oracle Power Objects, etc.? Yep. As easily or as efficiently or as fast as VFP? Not a chance.