>But they ask me always one question - who will support our program after you will be killed (sorry for black humor)? Where can we find another FoxPro programmer? Now I can show them some programmers, but what bout tomorrow? Our qualification is getting worse, because market is not interested in new programs...
I read somewhere there are 500,000 VFP developers. There are ads for VFP developers all-over the job boards. How many members does the UT have? The question to ask is: "If someother technology is used, and that developer dies, where will you get another engineer?". Thats the advantage of setting up a small company and training a replacement, rather than going it alone. That way, you can say, we have programmers.
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>I think in Russia it is impossible. We (but not me) hate copyright low (the first reason is that we are very poor - MS windows XP costs more then our salary for several months). And another reason (I call it ultra patriotic) - "we do not need to pay to American’s developers, look at China - they do not pay money to US for software and their life is perfect!" I do not agree with that people, but I am in minority :(

Many American "software" companies contract with foriegn companies for project work. The rates are so cheap, it seems cost effective - but the end product could be more expensive to maintain and may lack the ease of use a home grown developer would include. We have Rick Strahl, Michelle Fournier and Claude Fuchs (and others) on this board. They are sharp, dedicated developers and businessmen. Look at their business models. They seem to be doing okay and they have great products that appeal to a broad, yet niche, market.

If anybody could build a platform that could compete with the stuff that comes out of the US, it would be a country like Russia. The pendelum of capitalism swings. Where it is in Russia, I do not know. In America, our entire information infra struction is controlled by two groups. Many of us have to look to international services to get any real information. The battle of ideologies is always over the distribution of wealth. In the US, the oligarchs dominate the argument now. It will change. It takes grass roots to make a change. The way I see it, there are more of us than them - the word just needs to get out. Start with your provencial leaders and neighbors. Organize. Get the changes you need to make development tools cheaper - or (my preference), compete and offer the world another [better] option. Don't waste time looking back or lamenting the issue!