>Does VB support completely transparent connections to back-end data like VFP (using remote views).

Remote views are anything but transparent. Most developers who have developed successful C/S apps in VFP have found remote views to be awful. Rather, SPT (SQL PassThrough) has proven to be much more reliable. If anything, remote views have really hurt more than they have helped. Specifically, they have buffered many VFP developers from getting into the mainstream of C/S development. Remote Views are nothing more than wrappers for SPT. If you want maximum control - and most developers do - there is not substitute for SPT - or ADO now.

>>Does it support upsizing as easily?

Does VFP? Even the Access upsizing wizard is full of bugs. The upsizing wizard in VFP has several with bugs. This is one of the reasons why Stamti Crook's work is wondderful (he did the REDWare stuff). I have yet to hear of one time where somebody was able to use that tool with 100% success. Creating DB's in SQL Server is not a big deal anyway. The act of getting data to a SQL/Server is not a big deal either. What is difficult with backends like SQL/Server - and what could be said for just about anything in our business - is the area of performance tuning. Thats where you need a real expert. It does not take much to define a database and get it populated in SQL/Server.

Does VB do SQL as well as VFP (I prefer to use xbase/vfp commands as little as possible)? Views? Parmeterized views? Updateable views?

ADO does things better IMO than VFP views. Then again, ADO is based on the VFP engine - so I am not surprised. In terms of UI support - VB has it with the ActiveX Controls - VFP does not.