Patrick,
FPD to VFP8 will be an easier transition.
You will pick up speed, a GUI, COM/ActiveX, and still be able to use Java.

I have an internal document from a major US utility.
They converted a Btrieve/Novell/C++DOS app to Java/Oracle App server.
Project was cancelled midstream by clueless CIO.
App took 4-6 times the estimated time allotment and would have finished at 10 times the estimated cost. They killed the project in midstream when the budget was exhausted.

In '99/'00 Java was still a 1.0 environment and EJB was still forming.
(CIO also didnt know to convert smaller projects first, DUH, etc).

You can still do 2tier or 3tier using PHP/MySql/apache or IIS/MTS/SQLSVR or
just SQL/VFP calling .net you name it, and get more performance than Java.
Java depends HEAVILY on cached objects. The app servers are their own universe. Forget user demands!

VFP has too many external interfaces to existing codebases (COM/.NET) to ignore.

TTFN