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Here's the question: Considering all the legal trouble that Microsoft has been in lately with the justice system in the US of A - even if they wanted to kill VFP - I don't see how in the world could they possibly get away with it. Sure VB is used by many more shops, and sure they want you to use VB-SQL so that they can line their pockets - but there are still a great many companies/individuals that continue to use VFP.
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When the day comes that VFP is no longer profitable, MS would be well within their right to drop the product. No company in this country is forced to keep a product that costs them money to keep. MS is not a charity, the are a for-profit concern. Further, if a company did decide to keep a product notwithstanding its profitability, then the company is acting contrary to the interests of its shareholders. First and foremost, MS is accountable to those folks.

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Don't you think there would be he** to pay if MS decided to drop VFP -seems to me they are already having enough 'monoply' trouble that they would have a difficult time justifying a 'forced' move to another (most costly) platform by a couple hudred thousand (just a guess - I stand to be corrected) current VFP users?
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MS's anti-trust issues are a separate deal all-togther. The question might be if MS discontinued VFP, are they under an obligation to sell VFP? My guess is the answer is no. MS could certainly claim some sort of privilige with respect to some innovations in the tool that they should not be forced to sell to somebody else. Second, there is a product called dBase out there that is also part of the xBase market.

Finally, did CA get burned for killing Clipper? I don't think so...