That's a fair theory, Rod, but it too is only an hypothesis. Neither you nor I knows what MS' long range plans are, regardless of what they may be saying in public right now.

On the basis that "business has no conscience" it could very easily be that this strategy is highly suitable to MS AT THIS TIME. It doesn't mean that they don't intend to change it at some time in the future.

Choice can be good, for sure. But even MS is starting to realize that giving users too much choice makes it exceedingly costly to maintain the high reputation for reliability that they'd like to enjoy. I honestly don't see how I'm doing myself any favours at all by introducing additional components from other vendors who may or may not be around 2+ years from now, who have nowhere near the resources to that MS does to keep supporting and growing, who may leave it totally up to me to learn of available fixes/enhancements, etc. etc.

Most people don't find themselves compelled to add doodads to their fridge or stove and my best guess is that the uer population is heading towards "appliance" type functionality. My guess is that the overriding reason for that is RELIABILITY and SIMPLICITY.

In truth, Rod, I just switched my UT settings to use "Virtual forums" instead of 'the old way', and I got into this thread not realizing that I was in the .NET forum.

cheers


>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