t_j_haynes wrote:

> In the real world everyone runs multiple CPU servers, even
> more so with hyperthreading and dual-core chips.

Everyone? I must be living in some fantasy world then ;)

> trigger based replication mechanisms are
> comparatively lousy.

Have you actually tried some of them?

> Third is the lack of documentation. This is largely addressed by
> buying the book, but the online stuff is a mess - a mix of current
> and old Interbase stuff. It really needs to be current and Firebird
> branded.

There is a documentation project, and it is going at it's pace. However,
IB6 docs + Release notes for each version, are quite enough. It provides
much better (in terms of quality) docs, than MySQL for example.

> Last, but not least is the lack of a standard graphical
> administrative interface. This doesn't worry me, but some of these
> youngsters today can only function in a point-and-click world. A
> problem is that there are several GUI tools available, causing
> confusion among users who just want to install the standard package
> and have it just work 'out of the box'.

At the FlameRobin project we aim to fix this. It is still in alpha
phase, but we will get beta (and most probably 1.0) out this year. In
the meantime you can use IBExpert Personal Edition, which is the best
freeware tool available. Or, you can buy some of the excellent
commercial tools. They don't cost too much, I guess your first Firebird
project pays it off.

--
Milan Babuskov
http://www.flamerobin.org