I would very much like to comment on this:

- MySQL get money because they are a company
- PostgreSQL get money because some see them as an alternative to MySQL and
because it was developed in ways that are similar to other Open Source
successes
- Firebird is stuck with a license that mentions "Borland" and "Interbase",
which is not good seen from an investor's point of view, and also has other
issues, seen from a marketing point of view.

The name issue between Firefox and Firebird was brilliant. It made Firebird
much more known to the world than any feature implemented in the product or
any organisation around the product.

Anyway, the homepage http://firebird.sf.net/ doesn't provide much info to
why people should make the switch to firebird. Try to compare that with
http://dybdahl.dk/dxgettext/ - that homepage has made many people switch.

Med venlig hilsen – Mit freundlichen Grüßen – Best regards

Lars B. Dybdahl

Daintel ApS
Købmagergade 2, 5. sal
1150 Copenhagen K

-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: Firebird-Architect@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:Firebird-Architect@yahoogroups.com] På vegne af Jim Starkey
Sendt: 8. maj 2006 13:58
Til: Firebird-Architect@yahoogroups.com
Emne: Re: [Firebird-Architect] Re: Design of new built-in functions

This is the golden age of open source databases. Companies and
investors are are throwing sacks of gold at everyone in site but
Firebird. In the time that Firebird has put out three releases
(counting 1.5 as a release), MySQL has gone from a handful of people to
a profitable company over over 300 people with tens of millions of
dollars in the bank, millions of customers, and alliances with dozens of
major products and companies. And given that MySQL started with a
non-transactional ISAM where Firebird started with a full bore, SQL
compliant, robust, transactional engine, the difference is more
striking. The Postgres open source project started with an
unsuccessful, cast-off academic research project with huge technical
problems. It still has huge technical problems, but their most serious
problem is to avoid being knocked on the head by the bags of money that
companies throw at them.

Firebird's biggest problem is lack of management of organization. It
needs an organization to recognize needs and respond. The Firebird
Foundation owns the trademark and ostensibly runs the project. Yet
about the sole significant action of the Firebird Foundation in the last
couple of years was to expel me for anticipated future inactivity. If
the Firebird Foundation spent 1% of the effort they spend on personal
vendettas on intelligent response to opportunities, Firebird might go
somewhere.


--

Jim Starkey
Netfrastructure, Inc.
978 526-1376




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