I understand you cannot allow yourself to drift far from the company "line". MS is lucky to have you!

But VFP is just a software program - it has no emotions - no bills to pay - and [therefore] cannot be slighted.

People are "slighted". People who purchase MSDN, purchase VFP, people that buy SQL to hook up to VFP front/middle ware, people who purchase, develop and support VFP projects are the ones being slighted - those people are Microsoft customers. Not some object filled with 1's and 0's on a CD!!!

MS played the same "hope to grow the core product" with VB. VB is dead and MS stock is at 15 year old values. Maybe - if Microsoft showed the world that it's core concern are her customers, and not some marketing scheme that hopes by starving bob, it will feed bill - maybe things would turn around! The stock in in a slump - and from my ignorant 10 watt POV, Microsoft's name doesn't seem to have the same warm fuzzy feeling it used to have!

Not paying attention to detail is the reason, just maybe, for news items like "flaws in IE security", refusals to sell by Google, plumeting stock value and customer disatifaction.

All we ask is on your Product Page say "Visual FoxPro" - no link required - you don't have to hire an intern to answer emails - or link it to the home page. But [maybe] MS needs to put customers first. Right now, I get the sense that Microsoft is "penny rich, but dollar poor" and [maybe] more and more friendless by the day!

Thanks for the response!



>Terry, it's a decision to support what's core to the company. It's nothing personal and no slight is intended for VFP but if the market for VS.Net were to die tomorrow, MS would be far more hurt than if VFP died tomorrow.
>
>I can't go further into it but maybe Ken can explain this better.
>
>>Its always a struggle to keep things in balance and the perpestive honest. Why is MS allowing this fight to go on within it's "umbrella" of developers. It's not doing any of us any good! There are lots of SQL systems out there with VFP as a front/middle ware service. Redmond is letting us all down by not giving the tool that many of us on this board make a living with (and sell SQL licenses with), and; by not allowing VFP a fair (even minimal would be okay) billing on their product board!
>>
>>
>>The .NET guys calling out VFP guys, and vise versa. Why
>>>Also true. Terry, you're preaching to the choir. VFP is a great tool in a lot of environments.
>>>
>>>>>I would have to admit that, for sure. .Net is the development umbrella for a host of MS tools. There are so many things you can do with .Net and so many areas that the whole .Net concept can evolve into.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>There are also a lot of things that cannot be done with .NET and a lot of markets where .NET is unsuitable.