Subject Re: [IBDI] PHOENIX IN ASCENDANT
Author Paul Gallagher
----- Original Message -----
From: "Claudio Valderrama C." <cvalde@...>
To: <IBDI@egroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2000 3:04 AM
Subject: RE: [IBDI] PHOENIX IN ASCENDANT


> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Paul Gallagher [mailto:paul@...]
> > Sent: Sábado 29 de Julio de 2000 17:59
>
>
> I happened to find this social analysis:
> ;-)

Almost sounds like your mad at me Claudio. <g>

I guess thats exactly the kind of reaction I wanted though. I want people to
make sure we don't fall into another trap. I have absolutely no problem with
anyone selling support and documentation for IB. And I agree with Helen,
that it might be necessary for the survival of IB(maybe not though). I just
want to make sure that we are all playing by the same rules. If NewCo
develops documentation or manuals, or whatever, then they should get thrown
into the open-source pool, because the docs will almost certainly be written
with community help. The way the current open-source license reads, I don't
think this has to happen.

As I stated in an eariler post, I will make my money selling licensing to
apps I write. I will indirectly be making profit by supporting IB as well,
because the price of my apps will have the service built in. It would not
have been any different if Borland never did what they did last January. The
only thing different, is that I can now sell my product at a more
competitive price, because I don't have to pay licensing to Inprise. When I
heard the announcement that Inprise was discontinuing IB, I was devastated,
and began looking for another DB to develop on. When I heard the
announcement of Open-Source, I was overjoyed, and have been commited to it
ever since.

I almost get the feeling that some people out there feel that we should
develop IB for "the love of it". Get real. It's all about money. There's
nothing to say that you can't enjoy what you are doing, or love the product
you develop with. But face it. If there were no profit in this, IB would
have been in the dumpster the day after Borland made their announcment last
December. Im sure there are a few out there that are just hobbyists, and
like to tinker with it, but they are in the extreme minority.

I hate to keep sounding like such a greedy Capitalist in front of the whole
world here, but this is an incredible opportunity to make more money than we
ever could have. We are on the ground floor of a revolution that may have a
huge effect on large companies like Oracle and Sybase. Does anyone know how
many **Billions** of dollars the DB industry is worth? How is Oracle going
to sell a DB on Linux for example, if a great one comes preloaded out of the
box. When windows started coming with IE "preloaded" it destroyed Netscape,
even though netscape was arguably a better product. Don't think it can't
happen with databases. It may not, but there is a good chance.

Even though tempers may be flairing a bit here. And a few may be insulted. I
think it's essential to get this all out in the open right from the start.
Lets not hose this up from the start. Get the ground rules established, and
then lets get busy!

FWIW
Paul the GCP(greedy capitalist pig)