All excellent points, some I hadn't thought of. Thanks, Jim


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>I think there are a few things that MS might want to learn...
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>1) Was it worth the effort to make the download public?
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>2) The public beta was requested here, supported by several and initially turned down. (Some) people continued to support the idea regardless. MS ultimately delivered! They may be able to equate expressed demand (count actual requests in VFP forums) with 'latent demand' (those who said nothing (but did the download)) to better estimate the *real* 'desire' for things expressed in forums.
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>3) Since the public beta goes *some* way to fulfilling another oft-repeated request here - to offer a 'trial period' for VFP - they may be able to learn something as regards that issue when considering it in the future.
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>4) Knowing the actual number of beta copies "out there" and then counting the bug reports coming in (KenL DID supply a link to a reporting facility) can let MS learn much about the state of the code it initially put to beta. This surely is useful information for future decisions on beta readiness.
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>KenL has told of surveys that they do regularly to learn market information about VFP and this kind of thing can augment such information or provide some means of gauging apparent validity of their survey results. In addition, those survey numbers might be useful in extrapolating usage information.
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>So, if I was MS' VFP Team, I would be VERY interested!