FoxTales: Behind the Scenes at Fox Software

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.