Tom,

Side note: Here's a link taken from ProFox: Beware of .Net Sticker Shock.

http://www.dotnetwire.com/frame_redirect.asp?newsid=3039

To answer the thread title, what does .Net offer that VFP doesn't?

Expenses!!!

>
>For about the last ten years it seemes that Microsoft has driven the need for new hardware. Programs became bigger requiring bigger hard disks, memory hogs which required more memory, along with a need for greater CPU speed to name just a few requirements. If you had "yesterdays" machine "todays" Microsoft software would not be adaquate.
>

I can't really disagree, except to say that a new machine offered a many times performance increase over your older machine. Not true today.

>With each release of product from Microsoft we are promised many things. Much of my time is spent creating ASP applications for our corporate intranet (Toyota/General Motors). ASP 2.0, etc. leaves much to be desired. Now we are told how wonderful ASP.NET etc. are. The words sound the same just the product changes. It has been concluded that if we used the XP operating system that 86% of our programs in use today will not work. Each minute of down time costs us $10,000. I can see serious problems ahead for us.
>

MSFT will back down. They've had to already. One of MSFT's biggest gaffes was to try to tighten the licensing for Office from 3 years to 1 year and jack up the prices for doing so. Corporate America responded with serious investment into Linux community. They had to -- they needed alternatives. MSFT backed off, but the damage was done -- Linux is a tiny but growing community. If MSFT tries it again, Linux will be a serious contender.

Bill Anderson