>>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.

PMFJI, I think that advertising has more usages that just to generate sales (which I understand is the main point of running ads). Advertising can also show that a product is still around and well. I keep thinking about the time MSFT had a full page ad in a trade mag for Visual Studio and VFP was not listed. Les Pinter was called in to an executive's office and asked why they were developing in a product that MSFT was dropping. I know things are different now with VFP out of VS, but the point is the decision makers (right or wrong) sometimes go by what is in the trade mags. I still think one of the best places to put a VFP ad would in an airline magazine. Of course, it would not have any "geek speak" just a general best PC database development system for desktop and the web.