Hi Michel,

I received a reply while doing an update to my post, so here it is again

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Hi Michel,

I was just giving a little background about why Microsoft was so interested in establishing its new Internet strategy. Microsoft's war to acquire the Internet will be waged on many fronts and will take many forms, only one of which is its support of new Dot Net communities. Whether Dot Net wins the war to acquire the Internet will be determined by a number of smaller battles, one of which historically can be looked back at as the turning point of the war.

In the mean time Dot Net is casting a giant shadow over any development language that is not part of Dot Net push. For example, if you were a CEO of a small company, would you consider buying a VB6 application, even if it exactly met your needs and was developed by some of the best minds in the computer business? Any CEO, that can see beyond the end of his own nose, would have doubt about purchasing a VB6 app, given that if net is successful, the entire application might need to be re-written within a couple of year in order to be compatible and supported by a Dot Net centric OS. I have written an application in VFP7 and this is my dilemma. I feel my app's market potential is somewhat limited because of the uncertainty of the Dot Net push. On the other hand, It could take year to re-write my application in Dot Net. Also, Dot Net is still relatively young and unproven, and may fail inspect of Microsoft vast resources.

There is not doubt in my mind that Microsoft is treating VB6 and VFP7 user groups unfairly as compared to the preferential treatment if affords Dot Net User Groups; however, I feel a broader approach to the problems Dot Net presents to VB6 and VFP7 programs/programmer is needed. Is there some way outside of the legislative, justice, or economic systems to protect those who have invested their time, energy and money in what was only yesterday considered state of the art technology? There should be some way that Microsoft can be made to honor its committment to VB6 and VFP7 developers and others who have invested in VB6 and VFP7 apps, that would not also burden its Dot Net initiative, nor force everyone to make an expensive and prehaps, premature move to Dot Net.