Firstly, thanks for the update. It's always gratifying to hear news about
issues that interest and concern us, particularly one as near and dear to
our collective hearts and especially with InterBase's future having been
such a soap opera throughout much of its life with Borland. It's
particularly interesting to hear from someone who obviously has a better
rapport with the directors of Borland than most of us on this list can claim
to have.

I too believe that the future for InterBase looks bright. The news of the
high-level departures from InterBase initially caused me some concern,
especially in the absence of fact and the presence of much speculation but
I'm now confident that InterBase is on the right path. Conversely, I cannot
believe that InterBase's future with Borland could have lasted indefinitely,
especially in light of the mediocre marketing that the product received.

I understand that the DBMS market is a crowded one and that the economics of
change within a client corporation do not enable an easy switch from one
DBMS platform to another. For InterBase to do battle head-to-head in this
arena, it would require very deep pockets. If Borland were to engage the
competition at an equitable level, it would inevitably have been at the
expense of another product and perhaps at the expense of Borland itself.
I'm sure none of us would be pleased with that outcome. In light of the
decision by Borland to go the open source route, I believe this is the last,
best hope for the success of InterBase.

This is an exciting and challenging time for InterBase and its supporters.
We're all having the opportunity of a lifetime to participate either as a
player or close spectator in the creation of possibly the next great
software company. If the quality and capability of InterBase are any
measure of its future success, I believe that that future is indeed a bright
one.

As to your invitation for resumes I, for one, will be pleased to send you a
current resume, under separate cover.

Thank you for your news and for your generous offer.
...
Doug Filteau
Little Mountain Systems Inc.
http://www.LittleMountain.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Taylor [mailto:visionik@...]
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2000 5:54 AM
To: ibdi@onelist.com
Subject: [IBDI] news from the front


From: "Jonathan Taylor" <visionik@...>

Hello everyone --

A brief introduction: my name is Jonathan Taylor. I'm a "serial
entrepreneur" in Santa Cruz, California. I'm basically in the business of
starting new businesses. My last company was IRdg, where we created iPost,
an industry leading Unified Messaging solution for service providers. I'm a
long time Borland/Inprise customer -- iPost was written entirely in Delphi
and BC++. I also do strategic consulting for many of the top technology
companies in Silicon Valley.

Among other things I am working with Inprise on the effort to open source
InterBase and spin the product out into a new company focused on ongoing
development, service, and support of the open source InterBase and other
InterBase related products.

Yesterday I spent over an hour on a conference call with Dale Fuller and
others from Inprise on this exact subject. Many of the points those of us
on this list have brought up were discussed. Dale explicitly wanted to make
sure that those on this list knew that your points are being heard.

Until the final details are decided, I can't say much specifically. What I
can say though is that between open source contributions and the creation of
a new, aggressive startup company focused on InterBase, things have never
looked better for InterBase users and fans.

Inprise is already starting to look for folks to join the new InterBase
focused company. I should have an email address to send resumes to shortly.
Or if you want to get your foot in the door as soon as possible, feel free
to send me your resume and I'll make sure it gets immediate attention.

Sincerely,

-Jonathan Taylor
-visionik@...

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