Hugh Winters

Boss, de plane! de plane!

Video of the plane

Just the other night I was reading about the history of Visual FoxPro when it came to me that this month (June 2002) marks the 10th anniversary of Microsoft's purchase of FoxPro. As I thought back about that time, suddenly a rush of feelings filled me and I can still remember how validated I felt as a FoxPro user when great big Microsoft bought my favorite programming/database product from small but fiesty Fox Software. And since then what an incredible journey it has been!

Anyway, while sharing my discovery about just how special this June is with Michel, he graciously offered to create a "Happy 10 Year Anniversary" card to be sent to Microsoft in care of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and the Microsoft Visual FoxPro team on our (the Visual FoxPro developers) behalf. And the good part is: all we have to do is sign it!

Microsoft & Visual FoxPro - 10 years and going strong!

Hugh Winters
Lead Developer
WorldData Services, Inc.

Many thanks to those who signed the card June 21, 2002
The Universal Thread has collected 1149 signatures from the Visual FoxPro community. Those were sent to Microsoft among other cool material in regards to this event. You may view all the signatures from this page. Many thanks to all who participated in the signature event.

A Fox plane over Microsoft June 21, 2002
At 11:30am PST today, a plane flew over Microsoft, in Redmond, WA, for at least a half hour. This was part of the activities, planned by Hugh Winters, for the 10th anniversary since Microsoft bought FoxPro. It was a nice warm sunny day and many people were outside during lunch break to see it. More details about it as well as pictures taken by Ken Levy are available from this page.

Eric Rudder's response to the VFP community June 29, 2002
Eric Rudder, Senior Vice President, Developer and Platform Evangelism at Microsoft, has expressed Microsoft's thanks for the "Microsoft and FoxPro 10 Year Anniversary Card" sent last week to Microsoft. Quoted: "Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and I are very supportive of community efforts and we view this thank you from the FoxPro community as a great example of communities and Microsoft working together."

Introduction letter July 3, 2002
This is the introduction letter which was sent to the Microsoft Fox team along with the T-Shirts and other things. That was sent on the day the plane flew over the Microsoft office in Redmond, WA. This is a simple letter which introduces the sincere thanks from the community to Microsoft for the past 10 years. This letter will be built into a plaque and sent to Microsoft within a few days.

Ken Receiving 10 Year Anniversary Plaque July 19, 2002
In front of 100 Visual FoxPro developers who attended a presentation by Ken Levy last night on Visual FoxPro and Microsoft Dot Net interoperability, Hugh Winters presented a plaque to Ken Levy (Microsoft, Inc. Redmond, Washington) on behalf of the worldwide Visual FoxPro Community which was created to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Microsoft's purchase of FoxPro (June 1992).

Video of Ken Receiving 10 Year Anniversary Plaque November 6, 2002
Ken received a plaque on July 19, 2002 on behalf of the worldwide Visual FoxPro Community which was created to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of Microsoft's purchase of FoxPro (June 1992). Today, the video has been made available from Hugh Winters about this event.