...
> If VFP were sold off to a viable purchaser, would you be
> happy or upset?
...
I would be ecstatic. I'm not sure any other company could do worse for VFP
than what MS is currently doing.
Reasons it's a good idea:
- it'd probably go back to cross-platform. Compared with other MS dev
tools, VFP is probably one of the 'least' intertwined (aka, draws it's own
stuff on-screen). A truly cross-platform tool would give us all a much
better market to target.
- Not locked into MS's 'vision' - we'd have a better chance to make our own
- and do much better for the general consumer in the process
- VFP would very likely be marketed/advertised (PHB's would then lose a lot
of their 'argument' about VFP)
- A lot of VFP developers (and past VFP developers) would probably flock to
it. Or at least pick it up to see what all the fuss is about. Suddenly
building an app for Linux is 'easy'. I myself have probably about 5
applications that I would immediately port to Linux and send out as either
shareware or donateware. A big explosion in desktop apps for Linux might
increase the speed of acceptance of Linux for the average consumer. VFP
developers generally know and understand 'data' - and how to get the user
what they want/need. A lot of apps I've seen on Linux are great apps, but
they're not user-focused, so they're perceived as hard to use (I may not
have explained that well - and that may have sounded overstated).
Reasons it's a bad idea
- MS would very likely do 'something' to make the VFP code base
incompatible with Windows right after they sold it - to protect their other
stuff.
- VFP code base may be very complicated and hard to maintain (at least
that's what we've heard over and over as the reason why the 2GB limit
wasn't raised, et). If someone bought it, they'd probably need the original
developers to have a chance at enhancing it and keeping it from getting
clobbered by MS 'sneak' attacks <g>.
- It 'might' hamper Ed and Paul's (et. al.) Dabo advancement. And those
guys deserve some rewards IMO <g>
Why it probably won't happen
- MS surely won't sell it or open source it. It would most likely severely
sap their .Net/SQL Server sales (MySQL and PostgreSQL are already smacking
MSSQL around a bit)
- I think most Venture capitalists are probably looking for a 'big
breakthrough' type thing and wouldn't want to spend the millions on a
product that's been around for a while. And the bad press (or lack of
press) VFP receives probably makes it less attractive.
All that being said, if I'd win a huge lottery, I'd offer an award up 1 or
2 million to any group that could develop a VFP 'clone' that was cross
platform.
:)
-Charlie
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