>They do, probably, because VB appears to be bound to the OS a lot tighter. OTOH, they appear to be weaker up the scale ladder, like design patterns, database design, etc.

Let's also recall that VFP is decidedly a non-standard Windows implementation. I wouldn't necessarily call it "bound". VB plays by the rules, VFP doesn't. Of course, there are reasons for this that may or may not change in future versions. Nevertheless, every application is controlled by the OS, not the other way around.