I thnk I need to set a few things strainght here. This letter provides an
excellent context for me to do just that.

>Let's assume for the moment, that NewCo does it right, and there is no
>reason to assume they won't.

This is the assumption that I have.

Who is better qualified to move forward with this than the core team
(whoever is remaining and whoever can be pursuaded to get back aboard)?

If Inprise has a vested interest in the well-being of NewCo there is a very
healthy relationship that should continue as far as porduct distribution,
etc. We still want InterBase on all Delphi/CPPB/JBuilder CD's do we not?

>They will therefore have a system such as CVS, and everybody in the
>community who is involved will have access to this. Therefore there is
>no reason for the community to duplicate the work.

The community isn't endeavoring to *duplicate* the work. Although we are
getting a little impatient waiting for the source we realize that if we
*help* move things forward we will be productive with it all the sooner.
IBDI will be cooperative as long as I have any say in the matter.

>What we should be doing with this discussion, is putting pressure on
>NewCo to choose the system we select as the most appropriate. We should
>_not_ be assuming that NewCo will do their own (incorrect)thing, and the
>community will be doing our own (correct) thing.

This *is* the goal and intention of IBDI.

I think what is going on here is there are a number of people so eager to
get their hands in the source and go to work that they want to make
absolutely certain everything is ready to go the second the source becomes
available. NewCo is going to have a lot of expectations to satisfy I can
tell already!

There has been a significant amount of internal discussion among the IBDI
core team revently and we recognize that we have to be careful about how
eager we appear. We could be fostering unrealistic expectations in the
community and that isn't right. We want people to get excited and get
involved. But, we shouldn't assume things that we really don't have full
control of.

For example, much of what we are talking about is potentially being viewed
as our intentions to *do* things a certain way. That is a bit high and
mighty if we assume that NewCo is going to cater to our every little design.
We realize that some of our efforts may get hucked in the recycle bin... We
just want to be heard and considered. We respect that NewCo is going to call
their own shots. If NewCo wants to do something different than what IBDI
suggests chances are it will be better anyway.

Our hope is that we will provide useful tools and information to NewCo so
that they can confidently and rapidly move forward losing as little time as
possible in getting the open source movement up to speed. The greater the
initial accelleration the greater the overall distance covered. It's almost
like an exponential benefit...

We also want to make sure that there is a very significant portion of the
company shares made available to developers that want to buy into NewCo.
There are some who have connections to money significant enough to actually
own a majority in NewCo. We would like that to take place as well. I might
even like to pop in a few thousand myself...

I personally look forward to a healthy and synergistic relationship to ensue
between the developer community and NewCo. This is a very unique and
trend-setting move. There is a lot at stake and we simply cannot afford to
factionize and turn this into a competitive endeavor before anything even
gets off the ground.

I pledge my support of NewCo in my leadership role within IBDI. I also
pledge that members who turn against NewCo will be invited to withdraw from
IBDI to their own camp. IBDI will only turn against NewCo if it is the
majority position held by the community to want to do so. This would be
determined by a vote, not because any one key figure in the leadership team
decides that's what IBDI should do.

So, let's move forward with the same confidence and assumptiveness but just
realize that NewCo does have the rights to dictate matters as they see fit.

Ok, I'm about to fall over and crash on my keyboard. Hopefully everything
here is clearly presented. It's 5:09 AM and I do need to get some sleep!

Thanks to all who are striving for the best of InterBase!

Jason Wharton
InterBase Developer Initiative
jwharton@...

InterBase is the database of this millennium.