>You are correct Rodman, the VFP team does not receive any subsidies from any other groups at Microsoft, it is it's own business unit. MSDN subscriptions is not a subsidy, but MSDN usage by VFP developers is factored in the VFP business. I can't disclose more details, but I thought I would clarify the subsidies discussion.
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FWIW Ken, you are missing the point entirely. This is not about direct dollars a product team receives. Intrestingly enough, I have made this EXACT argument on Profox when I defended the MS EULA. I don't recall you at the time "clarifying" the EULA/Subsidy issue then.

Lets be very clear here - the Windows Platform is what drives the bus at MS. Take Windows away - and the company ceases to exist. So what happens? What drives the platform? Applications. But - to get more applications out there -there needs to be more boxes - with Windows licenses. And, with more Windows Licenses - there is more opportuntiy for applications. More to the point - theorhetically, the threshold of office sales can be no greater than the number of Windows licenses out there - right?

As of today - I don't buy into a tying argument. Why? Not because I don't think there is tying. Rather - because I don't see the anti-competitive effect........yet. Contrary to some beliefs here - tying is not per se illegal. When and if that day comes where anti-competitive effects can be traced to the EULA - which does in effect - make Windows a predicate for the royalty-free runtimes - then perhaps another section 1 anti-trust claim will be made. That by the way was the one important ingredient missing from the last case. i.e., the gov't could not show the anti-competitive effects of integrating IE with Windows. I personally never bought into the notion of a "browser market". But with that said - I do buy into the notion of an "custom applications market". I am not so sure that given the blurring of the lines between Windows, the application development tools, Office, SQL Server, etc - that things might not change in the future.

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