>JVP
>
>>>Those that view the world only in terms of their little corner, are going to wake up one day and ask, "Where did all these indians come from?" (The joke is that Custer said this at the battle for little bighorn!)<<
>>>I see .NET greatly accelerating this trend.<<
>
>More sophistry re your favourite topic. This time you have us being scalped by troops of In dians.
>
>Fact: we are not about to be surrounded and wiped out decisively by anything in the IT world let alone dotNET.
>
>Please read the following:
>
>http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18777.html
>
>Key points re dotNET:
>
>1) dotNET is overhyped and immature.
>2) Development will be "module by module", not big bang. IOW there is time for experienced developers to leverage their skills.
>3) In 5 years analysts expect most MS-centric development to be entirely in dotNET. 5 years is a pretty big "little corner" in IT terms. It represents the time difference between FP2.0 and VFP. Nobody would contend that VFP swept in and smashed FP2.0 away, there will *always* be an iterative series of choices in a 5 year IT span.
>4) Java still has the advantage with experienced developers and a favoured position.
>
>dotNET represents a 5-10 year strategy for MS. Not even Gates is still talking about "greatly accelerating" anything, experienced parties agree that MS has a lot of work ahead to win the minds and pocketbooks of developers and customers. We aren't about to be swept away by a Tomahawk charge.
>
>IOW the "fake enthusiasm" for an immediate dotNET invasion is an obsolete crock. People DO have time and reason to consider and learn, nothing is "greatly accelerated" about dotNET.
>
>The only thing you are correct about is newbies being turned off VFP and a resulting shortage of new blood. Surely you don't believe that a daily onslaught of FUD is the answer to that.
>
>regards
>
>JR

Hi John,

Here's another good reference for you, to a commentary entitled "Turf War" by James Surowiecki, which appeared in the June 10 issue of The New Yorker (p. 33):

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?020610ta_talk_surowiecki

The author concludes with this:

Where modern marketers have succeeded, wildly, is in selling us on the idea that marketing is all you need. The numbers suggest a different, homier lesson. The surest way to get stronger sales is to sell a stronger product.

The folks at Microsoft would do well to read this and keep in mind another homey lesson: Listen to your customers. BTW, a Google search for that exact phrase yielded 3000 hits. A search for all of those words in combination came up 691,000 hits.

Mike