>If they cant get the VFP community to upgrade, how can you expect them to sell to new users and therefore whats the point - they may as well just go into maintenance mode for VFP and discountinue support in due course. I think thats what failure to upgrade says to MS. Period.

Gary,

I have to take issue with this piece of reasoning. How promptly the VFP community upgrades en masse to VFP7 has nothing whatsoever to do with making sales to new users. Making new sales is strictly a function of Microsoft's own efforts to market beyond the existing FoxPro community. To lay the blame on us for not upgrading fast enough seems like a cruel hoax that only exacerbates people's reluctance to upgrade by raising legitimate doubts about Microsoft's true intentions. If VFP is going down the tubes it is surely because of Microsoft's deliberate neglect, not because of our lack of loyalty to VFP. I'm not convinced that .NET is a satisfactory "upgrade" path from VFP. A marketing strategy based on intimidation, deception, and coercion instead of honest persuasion is sure to backfire in the end.

Mike