Much has been written about the battles that go on between software companies over market share. FoxTales is the story about one such battle, told from the perspective of a foot soldier--my perspective.

When I started working for Fox Software as a young college grad, it was a company of barely over thirty people. It shared space in a small bank building located in the town of Perrysburg-on the edge of Ohio's farm country. It was a quaint, family-run business and its product, FoxBASE+, was a niche player.

The next four years brought many surprises, though. In that time, Fox would release a line of award winning database products, be sued by a larger rival company, grow to over 250 employees, and eventually outlive the rival to merge with Microsoft, moving all of us thousands of miles west.

And to think, I could've been a farmer.

Kerry Nietz graduated with honors from Bowling Green State University with a degree in Computer Science. He was employed by Fox Software as a software developer for four years where he worked on FoxPro 1.0 and 2.0. Following the Fox/Microsoft merger he became employee #29754 of Microsoft for nearly seven years. At Microsoft he worked on FoxPro version 2.5 and 3.0 for both Windows and Mac before leaving the pack to work briefly on Expedia and then on Microsoft's online bill payment system, TransPoint. Kerry currently makes his home in northwest Ohio with his wife, a dog, a cat, and whatever varmit is living in the crawlspace this week. Kerry can be reached at FoxTales@Nietz.com.