>>While I agree that Microsoft is pretty clearly not interested in marketing FoxPro, I would not be so quick to assume that they couldn't be persuaded to give VFP a little more of a fair shot. If MS wholeheartedly believed that VFP is losing them money, the logical thing to do would be to kill it outright. They may not be marketing FoxPro, but its availability is not a secret either.
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>>It also seems clear that there is within MS a faction of sincere VFP supporters, facing a powerful faction of VFP detractors. Both factions have some influence with MS upper management, but it's not clear that the ultimate decision makers are entirely closed to the possiblity of allowing VFP to grow. If they had made their decision they would either kill it or market it, but Microsoft's self-contradictory behavior suggests otherwise. Of course there is the possibility of some deliberate deception, but that wouldn't be wise, and I'm not convinced that this is the explanation.
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>>The point to keep in mind is that the notion that VFP is going to lose money by taking away sales from SQL Server is really a bogus argument (http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~OpenLetterBogusCounterArguments#BogusArgument01). An argument that must be respected, I grant you, because this is a widely held perception. But it's an argument that doesn't stand up to closer scrutiny. VFP is a great lead-in to selling SQL Server, and Microsoft isn't going to prosper by selling the wrong solution to a customer who is better suited to VFP.
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>>Mike
>
>I think MS should put all of their marketing efforts behind SQL Server and Visual Studio .NET if you ask me. Let's pick our battles here, Mike. VFP has already lost - it's time to move on. No, VFP is not dead and it will continue to thrive in the "enlightened" circles of VFP developers but the real stake is with MS vs. the other software companies, mainly IBM, Sun and Oracle. Do you really want to be writing PL SQL code in a crappy editor in SQL plus or hack through some C++ or Java misery that runs on a UNIX box? I don't. That's why I'm pulling for MS the products and platform and could care less how VFP gets marketed. Well OK, I care a little but not enough to miss the big picture!

Hi Jeff,

We're not looking for a whole lot of marketing effort from MS for VFP. What's the harm in their allowing us to market it for them? Do you really buy the argument that selling VFP without effort hurts MS? If that's the case they should kill it outright, not string us along with a misleading story about the wonderfulness of the forthcoming VFP8. Why not just let evolution and market forces make the determination about VFP's future, instead of wasting money and pissing people off with a doomed, self-contradictory strategy?

Mike