Hi Helen,

My position is well known, but to reiterate, I support the Open Source movement
and will continue to do so.
I will support Ann's support group because they have always supported us.

best regards

Dalton

Helen Borrie wrote:

> Colleagues,
>
> Here we go again - another round to save InterBase from the fate Dale
> Fuller is determined to make for it. This time, though, we have much more
> in hand to work with. We don't even have to BUY a database now. In
> January, we had enough investor interest to start up. Needless to say,
> those investors went away when Dale Fuller made his mid-February promises
> and began the charade that convinced us that his intentions were good.
>
> We now recognise that Fuller's PR over the past six months disguised his
> determination to vindicate his November decision to choke IB 6 development
> and put InterBase on the cold slab. We hurt his ego in January. His
> elaborate campaign for personal retribution was implemented as a PR effort
> that sucked volunteers (that's us!) into working around the clock to create
> a viable support environment. It sucked customers into believing that what
> *should* happen for InterBase was indeed *going* to happen with the
> cooperation of Inprise.
>
> Now we know that his strategy was, Dale Fuller is attempting to put
> Inprise on a war footing with the community surrounding InterBase (that's
> us). Already it appears he is setting up our technical colleagues inside
> the Inprise walls (who have our highest respect and are personal friends to
> many of us) as soldiers in this war. That is sad and destructive and,
> rather than engage in it, we must sympathise with these folk and the
> position they are force to take through their conditions of employment.
>
> We are only too well aware of Inprise's record wrt InterBase. The latest
> move - of putting Inprise's PR chief in charge of their token support
> framework - doesn't show a glimmer of hope that Inprise is going to be
> sympathetic to or supportive of a committed, technically proficient
> user-developer base in the Open Source environment. Ted Shelton even seems
> confused about the difference between "open sourcing" and "outsourcing".
>
> OK, Dale Fuller hasn't released enough for anyone to do a 6.1 build this
> week or even this month. He won't release the user documentation. He
> won't release the technical documentation or the build framework. Most
> vitally, he won't release the Test Suites. He will sell them to somebody
> willing to pay $10 million for them. They are not worth $10 million to us
> because we have the talent to reconstruct them ourselves.
>
> Fuller's latest moves have made an immediate fork inevitable. A name
> change looks inevitable, too. This is not a huge problem - Inprise has
> helped greatly by ensuring that this 15-year-old product has practically no
> brand recognition.
>
> Work is needed. Your work. Your willingness. We have a clear view of
> what needs to be done to hit the ground "in motion", if not running. We
> have the strength of numbers and of skill and the "many eyes of the
> bazaar". In January, we saved InterBase. Now, we must save and protect
> its future.
>
> Please start by responding to this thread - reply to this message, keeping
> the subject intact and deleting the contents. Make a statement of your
> position with regard to the NewCo that will stake IB henceforth.
>
> Helen
>
> http://www.interbase2000.org
> ___________________________________________________
> "Ask not what your free, open-source database can do for you,
> but what you can do for your free, open-source database."
> (J.F.K.)
>
>
>
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