On VFP in China (Blog: Tod McKenna)

Tod McKenna points out:

Did you know that “a survey showed that Microsoft’s FoxPro database application accounted for 65% of database installations in
China, yet Microsoft had not sold a single legal copy in the country.” (source)

This blows me a way. I know pirating is bad in China but this is just unbelievable. Imagine if 10% of those installs were legal. Microsoft would have additional pressure to carry on the language (and would have plenty of additional revenue as well).

From the comments:

...this survey is sure a bit older, since I remember to have heard that very same numbers several years ago…

One interesting fact here is, that (at least to my knowledg

e) FOX Software had a deal with a Chinese Software company, who localized FoxPro to the Chinese market on their own. That’s why FoxPro had a very good standing in China from the beginning. When MS took over, they didn’t renewed that agreement, but provided the two Chinese language DLLs with the main product. There are not too many MS products with chinese support out of the box.

Another:

Imagine how many copies would have been sold if VFP supported Unicode properly..