>>I've always thought the tools displayed on that page were changed regularly so Microsoft could focus advertising on different tools periodically. If you click on the quick catalog dropdown, VFP7 is there with the rest of the development tools-both alphabetically as well as under new releases. However, it would be nice if Microsoft put some energy into advertising VFP like it did its other products! It still seems today like Msft is only putting 'just enough energy into keeping VFP around' as to pacify the many developers and businesses that use it (including the govt by the way). I wonder what would happen with VFP if it was every REALLY advertised and promoted?
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>Advertising VFP would not result in any significant increaase in sales/usage of VFP, most VFP developers should know that. How does an add for VFP get an existing developer using another product to use VFP? As any company that stays in business, advertising is related to sales and profit. Companies that spend more money on advertising than they make on revenue go out of business (many .com companies are good examples of this). Having article on VFP in magazines such as MSDN like the October issue go much farther for VFP usage and sales than any advertising, and other types of VFP awareness.

Ken,

There's no question that you've done a stupendous job in your short tenure as VFP's Marketing Manager. The MSDN Magazine article really got VFP some attention with a wider than usual audience. I sure hope we see more of those kinds of articles. I'm sorry I never did download whatever I needed to view the Ballmer video, but I was able to listen to it. This was truly an awesome achievement.

I think that it counted even more to see that link in MSDN Flash, pointing people to the VFP home page and announcing the Ballmer video. Had Microsoft not taken that step, I can't tell you how disappointing it would have been.

Now I know you're very busy, Ken, and you've been responding so well to so many requests, but I think there's another area that really could use a little more attention, and I'm not talking about advertising. It's the spam. Those newsletters we never subscribed to, but are sure to receive. These things have a tremendous circulation beyond the FoxPro community, and they'd be a perfect opportunity for some no-cost VFP promotion.

Here are some specific references:

http://www.microsoft.com/directaccess/
http://www.microsoft.com/partner/Partnering/Certified/
http://www.microsoft.com/partner/Help/newslettersubscriptions/

The conspicuous absence of VFP from the barrage of these newsletters I receive on a weekly basis is not only a wasted opportunity, but that persistent pattern over the years has contributed more than anything else to the perception that something is seriously wrong with Microsoft's attitude toward FoxPro. So please, Ken, spice up the spam for us! I would hate to be so rude as to ask Microsoft to stop sending me these newsletters that I never even requested in the first place. It would be so much better to make them entertaining.

Mike