Jim
The actually it's not some conspiracy theory. Microsoft knows it needs a healthy third party market. There is no way they can specialize in every type of control a developer might need.

To me it's about choice. I can choose from a number of different types of controls depending on my needs. I have an application that has componentone grids and infragistics grids. Why... because one tools does one particular thing better than the other. Is this bad ? I am happy I have the choice instead of being locked in.

The history of this type of tool is that a lot of functionality is provided by 3rd parties. As a matter of fact Microsoft typically contracts to these same 3rd party vendors to write the controls. I used to work at one Pinnacle Publishing.. where Microsoft liscenced graphics server from us.


Rodman