>Does it cost us anything to stay in the VS box? If so, what is that? I can't name any MS products that aren't in one of the various suites.

MS Project is one.

>I like the idea of VFP having its own story. Can we realistically expect MS to put any marketing muscle behind VFP? The lack of significant marketing in the past creates doubt that this would happen.

VFP in the VS box means VFP has to have a VS story, and that has meant middle tier and DNA the past few years. VFP out of the VS box means it gets its own story, meaning bragging about being a great tool for rapidly building database solutions of various sizes (desktop, LAN, client/server, Web, components, Web service).

I can't make any promises about how "significant" the level of marketing will be, but I will tell you that if we take VFP out of the VS box, we will do more marketing and the marketing we do will focus more on the things VFP does best.

Robert