FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software [Paperback]

Kerry Nietz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

This memoir of Fox Software details the company's growth from a college professor's side project to a 300-employee organization before its acquisition by Microsoft for $160 million in the early 1990s. Recounted are the triumphs and struggles that the development team went through as they learned how to build personal computer database software that eventually became best-of-breed and trounced the competition. Former employee Kerry Nietz describes his interview at Fox, his job offer, his first days as a rookie programmer, and the tumultuous events of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the lawsuit filed by Ashton-Tate and the merger/acquisition by Microsoft. Recounted are the varied personalities on the team, including the sometimes off-the-wall management team, and how the outside world appeared to a group of developers who spent their lives staring at computer screens, trying to ship another batch of code.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kerry Nietz worked as one of the six key software developers at Fox Software until the day the company was acquired by Microsoft. He lives in Warren, Ohio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Hentzenwerke Publishing; 1st edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930919506
• ISBN-13: 978-1930919501
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,487,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #38 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Economic History
  • #96 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science > Technology > History of Technology

More About the Author

Kerry Nietz is a refugee of the software industry. He spent more than a decade of his life flipping bits, first as one of the principal developers of the database product FoxPro for the now mythical Fox Software, and then as one of Bill Gates's minions at Microsoft. He is a husband, a father, a technophile and a movie buff. He has one non-fiction book, a memoir entitled FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software. His first novel, A Star Curiously Singing, was published in October of 2009.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to put down, November 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software (Paperback)

I really enjoyed reading this story and found it difficult to put the book down to get back to work. Kerry has a humorous twist on a stress-filled journey of working for a small company in the midwest that put together one of the greatest success stories in the industry. It brought back some enjoyable memories that I had long forgotten. This book gives you some excellent insight to how this software development tool was developed, and how amazing this product is despite the challenges this company and the developers faced. This is an easy read and might even provide you with some ideas to improve how you approach the people side of our business. Thanks for sharing your story Kerry.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy Foxtales, February 23, 2004

By 

M. Sedluk (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software (Paperback)

Once I began this extraordinary book, I could not put it down. It's a page turner with a story that will appeal to all readers. I worked at Fox Software with Kerry for over 4 years. This story of Kerry's experience at Fox Software is a wonderful reminder that how you get to the top is more important than how high you get.

There have been many stories of what the inside of the high-tech business looks like from the most famous and successful business leaders. Most of these stories are attempts to write history and promote themselves. This story is about a hard working and honest guy who wants to work hard and make something of himself by joining a small software company. After reading this book you can tell that Kerry wrote this book to just share his experience. He is not trying to promote himself, and by doing so he tells a story that so many people can relate to, and he records for all of us a fascinating story of a small software company at a time when the industry was growing exponentially.

This story has a happy ending, despite all of the obstacles presented in the book, Kerry and others continued to work hard and were rewarded years later at Microsoft. I am looking forward to more great books from Kerry.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good tale of a small company succeeding, January 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software (Paperback)

This book was hard to put down. I enjoyed the book to the very end. I was shocked about all the things that went on in Fox Software. A small software company from Ohio, was able to change the software industry.