Craig

>>MS will force people to adopt .Net ...

As soon as I hear that about a company, I sell any shares I have in it.

NOBODY can force the market. It has been proven over and over in the real world. When you try, the market moves around you and you end up discredited.

Not even the mighty MS can force the market. If it thinks it can, it is on the road to a HUGE fall. MS can try to *convince* or *bribe* the market but if it tries to *force* the market, MS had better be much more than just a company. It will need to be *owner* of the managers, developers and other decision-makers whose decisions it believes it controls.

The fuss kicked up by the VB chaps shows clearly that this is not the case even among those who have most reason to be loyal MS'ers. The preference for Linux/Java in Silicon Valley suggests that MS is no longer responding to popular IT cues from developers.

Regards

JR