I think the plain English meaning is clear when he says that Fox is being targeted toward existing customers only. I think the consequences are clear as well. In my opinion, in the not too distant future, for every 1 fox developer who is momentarily doing fine, there will be 10 that will be scrambing around. It may very well be the case now.

This is the way I see things. I think my conclusions are reasonable. In the end, it is just my opinion.

As far as the new version of Fox is concerned, while they could put the greatest whiz-bang features in the product, unless the product is marketed to win.

Almost 5 years ago, I asked Bill Gates the following question:


Today, I stand here representing over 500,000 Visual FoxPro developers in the World. Our development community to say the least, has been a devoted following – with good reason as the Visual FoxPro feature set allows for the building of powerful mission critical database applications such as the Jfast Application that managed the logistics of equipment and troops during Desert Storm.

With this in mind I would like to ask a question: Why isn’t Visual FoxPro marketed based on its strengths? Just to elaborate: Every product from Microsoft, whether it be Visual Basic, Visual Interdev, Office, or Internet Explorer is marketed to win. Yes, the core Visual FoxPro Team is doing a great job of evangelizing and promoting the product, but it appears that Microsoft is a house divided with respect to Visual FoxPro.

Why is it that Visual FoxPro is not marketed in Visual Studio with the same enthusiasm and drive as these other products? In other words: why isn’t the Visual FoxPro team being given a chance to succeed? Is this Microsoft’s policy….to not market Visual FoxPro to win??


The response took over 2 minutes. He was not prepared for this question. In a nutshell, the answer followed the lines of "Fox has a devoted following, we are happy to have them as customers, we will continue to support the product, but it is not the strategic focus of MS..." Boiled down...MS has never intended MS to be marketed to win...

Products that are not marketed to win....die.

Nothing more needs to be said...IMO, dead or dying products do not warrant more investments of time or energy. Like everything else, these have to be individual decisions. To make a decision, people need to be fully informed. As long as the overly optimistic spin is put out there, I will put out the realistic counter-spin. At this point, in for a dime, in for a dollar...



>Yes, I guess that does it. I read it a tad differently but easily see how you interpret Ken's statement.
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>cheers
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>>HTH...