following

"Eventually" could mean anything, and doesn't necessarily mean "soon."  But the truth is that Access has not kept up with the times, and Microsoft has not improved it nearly enough.  Most other development tools like Visual Studio are already light years ahead of Access in terms of features and capabilities.  If Access were to be abandoned, it would be by users who found Access lacking and moved on to other tools.  And if not enough people used it, Microsoft would abandon it for good.  But WordPerfect has proven that a strong niche group of users can sustain an outdated application.

I know that Microsoft is putting a lot of resources into their cloud services because honestly, that's where they make most of their money. However, I really can't see them killing off their desktop versions of their Office applications in the near future - and I'm talking within the next decade - because a lot of businesses, government institutions, and such refuse to run things out of the cloud for security reasons.

Yes, Access hasn't gotten the love that a lot of the other apps have, but like Kevin said, it's got a very strong, very vocal user base. There are literally millions of small businesses running on Access databases. I could see Microsoft cutting back on adding new features to Access in the future if that were the case, but they're not going to kill it altogether; they would have a mutiny on their hands. At least, that's my opinion.

I subscribe to a LOT of Microsoft-related newsletters, newsgroups, and things of that nature, and I've never heard anything about them discontinuing the desktop versions of Word and Excel. So, I would take what you heard with a grain of salt unless it came from a reputable source. I see comments from consultants all the time that "Microsoft has killed Access" or they're killing this or they're killing that, and it almost always turns out to be nonsense. Usually, it's spewed by some consultant who's trying to push people into a different solution - one that they sell.

Richard & Kevin: Thanks so much for your thoughtful replies and I agree with both of your statements. I thought it very strange when they told me about doing away with desktop versions of Word, Excel, etc.  Thanks for your insights and I will sleep better tonight knowing the MS is going to cut our legs out from underneath us any time soon.

I'm just hoping they wait until after I retire to get rid of Access... and I figure I've got about 15 years left.

Who am I kidding? I'll never retire. I love this shit. :)