Kevin!.
I actually dropped a couple tears!
It's very similar to my own story, even the dates are about teh same.

>The news is out: some are surprised, some are not, some are upset, some are resigned....
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>But one thing we can all agree on. The history of VFP is rich with an entrepreneurial spirit that should not only be remembered, but carried forward by all of us.
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>For me, it started in 1988 when I had to write a long list of data conversions with QuickSilver (an old xBase compiler). I brought in a copy of FoxBase and showed how (and this was BEFORE FoxPro) it could take a 30 minute job and reduce it to the point where my bosses could not believe their eyes.
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>In Perrysburg in 1989, Dr. Dave had a copy of FoxPro on one machine, and that lard-ass product dBase IV on another machine. It was a riot!!! I was envious of how much fun the man was having. The lean-mean Fox Software against the overweight Ashton-Tate. While others believe that FoxPro 2.0, and VFP5 represent major steps forward in VFP's history - I will always think of FoxPro 1.0 as the single biggest quantum leap forward. In late 1989 I won an award from the Dept of Agriculture for a system that I wrote throughout the year in FoxBase, and coverted to FoxPro in November. I was only 24 and thought I was in heaven.
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>Most, if not everyone, has at least one similar story to tell.
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>And after that, so much history....just like Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" song that's filled with lyrical rhymes about world history, one could take all the history of this great product and make a similar song - Goley, Dunn, Pat Adams, YAG and his CodeBook, The Hacker's Guide to VFP, Markus, JVP, Big Daddy Rod, Drew (the ultimate character with character, god bless his soul)...
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>How many of us couldn't wait for the next copy of FoxTalk and Fox Advisor....
>How many of us stayed up until 4 AM, incorporating a new VFP feature...
>How many of us felt totally juiced and energized after coming back from a DevCon...
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>But was it 'all' about the Fox product??? To me, it was the PEOPLE....their drive, energy, passion, tenacity, vision....that ultimately created the environment that some now believe is dying. It doesn't (and shouldn't) have to be that way. It's a slightly different world that the late 1980's/early 1990's....and now everyone needs to take a chapter out of what these leaders demonstrated, and carry it forward to new technologies, new environments, new challenges.
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>There will never be another community exactly like the VFP community...just like there will never be another 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team, nor another Beatles. But there is still sports, and music....and software development...and so many things to get stoked about. While many are very very upset about the recent news, there is a positive - remember that before FoxPro, there was no FoxPro. Dr. Dave and the early Fox crew took risks, they took chances. Just a vision, skill, a little bit of luck, and many of the precursors that made the VFP world possible. There are more worlds out there to be created. The professional successes that all of you have had, weren't all about the actual product. They were equally from what you put into it. Regardless of what you develop in, don't let that entrepreneurial spirit die.