Hello I'm working at a company that's been using Delphi for about four years now. We started with Delphi 2, coming from Gupta's SQLWindows and Centura. We make client server apps that run against Oracle servers. Our core business is facility management; consultancy and software development. Our products are Cable Management, Helpdesk, Time Registration, Space Management,... Delphi covers 99% of our developments, Visual C++ about 1% (because we have a product that runs under AutoCAD® in which the main functionality is also written in Delphi, but the interface with AC is in C++). As for the language, I also miss some cool stuff that C++ offers like templates or generic types in general. On the other hand Object Pascal is much cleaner in it's syntax and more readable for new programmers and even non-programmers. Given the fact that we have some pretty tight codestyle rules, this comes in very handy. The power, you ask? Well, I don't think there is anything you can do with VC++ that is not possible in Delphi. Not even writing drivers. And the quality of the produced code seems very satisfactory. We must not forget that this compiler has an history which goes back to Turbo Pascal 1.0, back in '83. Do not get me wrong; I also love VC++, especially when you throw in some stuff like BCG (Stas Levin) and I often think: "Next project I do for myself, outside the company, will be in VC++". But every time I let myself seduce by the fast prototyping facilities of Delphi, a feature that does not come at the cost of power or performance. So; maybe I'll be coding in VC++ within some months, but I don't think I'll ever abandon Delphi. As for the free code: there are lots of excellent libraries available, with source code. Just take a look at Delphi Super page (http://delphi.icm.edu.pl/) or Torry's Delphi Pages (http://www.torry.ru) (just to name two of the zillions). Did this help you a bit