Hi Doug,
I was a VFP guy for quite a few years, we dipped our toes into .NET slowly and it was a somewhat daunting task. We had a framework that we relied on heavily for our VFP applications and when knew the value of having a solid foundation for our application that took care of a lot of the important underpinnings. We tried a few, some you have mentioned, and if memory serves they left me feeling like I had another learning curve altogether, feeling overly complicated and hard to get going with. I almost gave up.
To make a long story short, Strataframe has allowed our company to make a smooth transition to where we are now 100% .NET. Getting a new project started is 5 minutes, a data maintenance form is 10, search screens another 10. This allows us to focus on the screens that make the applications work, the ones that we all know to be the heart of the apps we write. SF provides the tools for both fast ramp-up as well as more complex controls to handle more complex tasks. Another selling point for me was the Database Deployment Toolkit, I already had to learn .NET and didn't want to have to learn TSQL as well at the same time. The two tools worked together great like my old friend Stonefield for VFP.
What really sold me on SF was the support. I remember a specific night not all that long ago, sitting at my PC around 1AM trying to properly evaluate SF in a short period of time since they had a training session coming up. I was stuck and posted on the forums hoping (praying) for a response over the weekend to report some progress to my boss on Monday. How shocked was I when about 10 minutes later I had a response and an email with help? Now I am not saying that is the norm (Trent and Ben would shoot me) but it illustrated to me their dedication to the product and their customers. Support has not dropped off one bit since, by far the best company I have dealt with in my 10 years in IT.
Hope that helps you out some.
Keith C.
Sigma Data Systems
Keith Chisarik