interesting points you make....
but, lets compare MS to other software companies such as Borland or CA.
instead of comparing them to non software companies.

Do you remember how CA hung its clipper community out to dry?
Then they just stopped producing any new versions. And Visual Objects was annihilated by Visual Studio. VO 2.0 couldn't compile anything productive.
How about what Borland did with Visual DBase?

Sybase or whatever they are called also hung Powerbuilder developers out to dry because rather than PB connect wiht all kinds of servers via several connection methods they attempted to push their own server... semi-forcing PB developers to use their home grown server.

The company I named in my anecdote is worth $60 million dollars.... and they are running a $500 database....
Now if VFP were like SAP or something and MS got a piece of my payment then we have a realistic revenue model...

I think I spend more on hardware than I do on software....
How much should MS really listen to me?