Well, IMO, VFP6 or 7 will be around, with W2K, for a LOOONG time.

I fully expect to be using it to support legacy apps 10 years from now. (If it's not broke don't fix it.) While there are some good Linux-only GUI-RAD IDE's (KDevelop [which may change your mind about using C++ for dev work], QTDesigner, Code Warrior, etc...) if I were to return to consulting then, besides VFP, I'd get my hands on the most powerful GUI-RAD IDE I could find that will allow cross platform development between WinXX and Linux. Kylix comes to mind... :), and while the Java environment isn't the fastest there are situations that are applicable and Visual Age for Java 3.0, or Forte, or some other tools will be useful.

Linux is becoming a significant factor on the desktop (if it were not then Bill, Steve and Craig wouldn't waste so much time and resources fighting it -- you don't see MS anti-BEOS attacks, do you?), just like it has in the server room, and in embedded space. I think you'll see Delphi surging back, boosted both by Kylix and cross platform capability, and by folks not wanting to go the C# - .NET route.

Not everyone is going to want to convert their client/server apps to XML apps accessible by browser, especially when users are internel. Folks don't realize how much coding is envolved when you are doing something like using a text editor to write XML code that reacts to an Oracle back end package and triggers that you designed with Toad, you don't have a seamless debugger environment... Lots of work... We are doing it for some of out internal apps and using the best tools we could find/afford but it still suprises us how much coding is required. Adjusting buttons and textboxes on a webpage isn't a matter of dragging and resizing..., or clicking the title band with your right mouse button and selecting 'run'. Working between state and stateless environments is a pain.

But, for industrial strength backend, I'm not sure MySQL is the right tool. I'd use it in some situations but I'd also have PostgreSQL in my backend toolbox. I think you will be surprised how powerful Python is... and it is cross platform too!
JLK