>I am pretty sure I will be making a living with VFP another 5 years maybe 10. I will learn .NET because I may have a need for C++. That won't distract me much since I come from a C background.

Do you mean C# or C++ ? While I understand that .NET will be usable by any language via the CLR, C# is it's primary language. Yes? No?


>
>Having said that, who really gives a damn anyway? If you jump on the party boat everytime MS comes up with the new "thing", you wind up with a continous hangover.


And broke, after all the fees for training and certification, and time lost do those things.


>
>Finally to add to the things you have already pointed out. MS's strategy of making it's software and tools subscription based and accessed through web services won't work in Asia. Most of the rest of the world is still paying for their internet by the hour, as I am now. That is not likely to change anytime soon.

While I am using broadband at home (RR - 2MB/sec) it costs me about $57/month. Since I usually purchase a boxed set of my favorite Linux distro (Mandrake) having the download speed of RR isn't really necessary. I could drop back to a 56K modem and employ junkbuster and other filtering to kill ads and useless graphics. I'm giving it serious consideration, anyway. The fact that I just purchased a new Saturn L2 factors in too ;-)

BTW, I just heard this morning that Intel is laying off 4,000 workers because of soft sales pf computers.

And, while reflecting on others comments about .NET I wondered...... If .NET is so good at allowing easy development of web based apps does that also imply that it would take fewer coders to generate the same number of .NET apps? It appears so to me. Combine that with the dot.com implosion and the resulting 90% loss of job adverts and Intel laying off 4K of 83K workers and you don't get a pretty picture. If you have a job count your blessings. If you don't, good luck.



>
>
>>I don't believe he is either.
>>
>>Not only are sales of new PCs down to the 'replacement' mode, the various economically viable niches that were available for independents and consultants have been exploited and dried up. These were factors that drove computer sales and software needs. THe 90% drop in available programming jobs following the dot.com implosion is evidence of an over aboundance of coders. It seems to me that the computer industry is entering into a 'maintanence' mode and that the problem of making sure that the huge amount of digital data currently will remain accessible is rearing its ugly head. The constant 'upgrades' and petty changes in data formats that are dictated by the bottom lines of software houses will leave some data stranded. If you don't have a working AppleII+ then what good are those floppies containing Apple apps and data, especially if you can't find a vendor that can retrieve the data and convert it to a format readable by current applications? This 'niche' will be extinct
>>before historians can collect specimens.
>>
>>I've got between 5 and 10 years left before I get let out to pasture. We are writing all new apps using Oracle as the back end and Netscape as the front end. Our last WinXX OS will be W2K, and we will not be moving to XP or anything beyond. Purpose: to achieve platform independence (or at least WinXX independence). This conversion will take some time, so even 5 years from now I will proabably be maintaining VFP apps and DOS batch files. Meanwhile, computer technology will continue to shrink and capabilities expand. Who knows - 10 years from now we may be talking to our boxes in conversational English, or whatever.
>>
>>Luckily, in 10 years my new grandson will be 9 years old. By then the directions that computers and programming are taking should be evident and he can begin plotting his future occupation with some hope of success.
>> I will continue using Linux until I am too old to care, or the DRM and IP ploys of Microsoft force the general personal computer into outlaw status. If the latter happens my use of computers will be at an end.