At one time, I worked on product that used Pervasive database. We couldn't sell the software because IT departments had never heard of Pervasive and had no idea how to support/backup/maintain it. We moved to SQL Server. If you're selling a product, why risk the sale?


>Hi Craig,
>
>Fox was a niche product, even when it was bought by Microsoft. In '93 a department of a Fortune 50 company hired me to write a sub-accounting system in a niche language, because there was no hope for it being done by the IT department using mainstream tools. They were very happy with the result (written in FoxPro for Windows 2.6).
>
>Labeling products (e.g., as "niche") is like labeling people: an interesting assertion, but irrelevant until specifics are discussed.
>
>True, there are companies who prefer teams of programmers doing what a few developers can do with the right tools. In my own experience in dealing with a few large international firms, I have encountered no pushback about platform: they care that it works as advertised. My own experience in working with toolsets is that products (like FoxInCloud and Lianja and others) can be many times more productive than toolsets designed for masses of programmers.
>
>So long as you understand and convey that "niche" can be an appellation denoting high value -- McDonald's being mainstream, Shake Shack being niche, for example -- I think you are accurate in using that term. If you mean it to convey disparagement, on the other hand, the evidence of Fox itself, and the productivity it brought to business software development, argues against your intention.
>
>best regards,
>
>Hank