Rjean

I don't know about 'big' user base, but there are definitely still some people who want to use it.

In comparison to .NET, Java - there is no comparison in numbers, that is correct.  However, there are, as you said, many existing developers and apps that need maintenance, support and upgrade.  I also see a steady stream of newbies on a daily basis in the forums I frequent.  Also, if the VFP market were drastically shrinking, they wouldn't be adding new training and conferences like they have in the past few years.  Also, you see more VFP marketing and sharing of the stage (visibility) at the bigger general MS and Advisor conferences.  So, I'm staying the course for now in spite of all the naysayers....  I'm a 16+ year Fox veteran and have weathered the propaganda wars in the past and will continue to do so.

(databases are like Cobol, pretty hard to get rid of)

I can't believe I didn't jump on this comment already.... Most of our work these days comes from replacing COBOL and Pascal apps with VFP/SQL apps.  LOL.  We even have 3 former (and current) COBOL programmers who have been learning VFP and they love it! 

Your point is well made about nobody is going to switch as their is no business case.  I totally agree, stick with what you are happy and productive with.  Your arguments about why not to switch TO Foxpro are the same arguments I make for not switching AWAY from Foxpro.  There is no business OR technology case to do so. Those that have followed the "technology du jour" path are probably wishing they had stuck with Fox.  I evangelize fox because I do see a market for new developers who want to do Microsoft development but are not happy with the Access/.NET choices.  I think .NET is great and can do much more than VFP in a lot of areas (multi-threading, ASP.NET, graphics, some nice controls, etc.) - However, for the type of apps I am employed to create on a daily basis, that is all mostly overkill and bloat for me to wade through.  I am happy with the application building blocks I use AND if I need to, I can interop with .NET, consume web services, automate Office and other COM servers, use ActiveX (and have done all of these things many times)  We even created a C# multi-threaded socket listener that calls out to a VFP COM server (re-using business objects, etc.) - that's one way to make VFP multi-threaded {g}
So I think comparing VFP to CICS is a little bit of a stretch, don't you?
By the way, what is the .NET report writer like? Oh yeah, there isn't one! Not counting SQL Reporting Services or Crystal.  You only wish you had an embedded  report writer like VFP.  Watch the video again.... Hahahah.

FoxPro is only for existing FoxPro users anyway. Nobody is going to switch to it from SQL Server. Actually I'm pretty amazed MS is still developing it, it must still have a pretty big user-base (databases are like Cobol, pretty hard to get rid of).

Funny, I switched from Foxpro to SQL Server long ago but STILL develop most apps mainly with VFP - this is where a lot of people are really confused about what VFP is and what it can do, especially for client/server/desktop apps. Visual Foxpro is so MUCH more than a backend database.  What's interesting is that we develop a lot of enterprise apps (yes, enterprise, OOP, nTier, the works) with VFP & SQL and most clients could care less (or even know) that we're using VFP. So people are switching, they just don't necessarily know it. {g}  It's all about delivering on promises by providing solutions that work on time and on budget. VFP (and many 3rd party tools) help us do that consistently.