Hi All

Since we had that fateful "A word on InterBase at Inprise" email from
Ted Shelton. I was wondering what the other side of the story was
since I hadn't heard anything from ISC or now "NewCo" about what they
intended to do with interbase and why they were being so quiet. So I
followed it up a bit...

A lot of people here have much longer historical ties to Borland and
Interbase than I do. Being closer to the coal face they probably know
most of this stuff or can correct me where I am wrong. But for the
benefit of people like me, who don't know the players. Here's is a rough
summary of what I believe happened.

The failure of the ISC venture came as a surprise to ISC, although they
were getting fed up with waiting. Apparently even at Borcon Ann was
told by Dale to bring her pen along, because he was in the mood to sign.

Since it was to be a mutual happy thing, ISC was a mixture of people:
including people from Borland/interbase, those hoping to help makeup
ISC, and others in mixed mode contracted or partially contracted and
partially working for free mode. They all contributed to the IB6.0
build.

The split into now "Borland" and non Borland people is problematic, lots
of no Borland people have contributed to what is in IB6.0 some without
pay, others for partial pay.

Most of them have signed and are still bound by some sort of
confidentiality agreement signed with Inprise based on good intentions
and to help work on a successful IB6.0 release.

A lot of the work they have done, for example upgrading documentation is
now useless because Borland own the copyright.

Inprise has as I understand either threatened them and/or is pursuing
them for use of any trademark names such as: IB, Interbase ISC logos
brands etc. Since most of their stuff was based on a successful out
sourcing of interbase, it's all through any material they have.

NewCo's assets include the now useless hosted www.interbase.com website
which they have been running and using to build IB6.0.

The sticking point, as I understand it, was the large amount of money
Dale wanted for the Test suite and documentation, (I saw someone mention
10Mill somewhere in a newgroup post) before he would let them release it
to opensource.

The CVS sources released by Borland were picked up from the
www.interbase.com ftp site by Borland (they do still own the
copyright). However these were not the latest versions that made up
the binary IB6.0 build. There are still some bits missing. Including
the build documentation, some IBConsole bits and the international
language component (Im going to try and build a complete list).

These are all still in the CVS tree at www.interbase.com , which (I at
least) hope Borland will still allow to be released (along with the test
cases etc.).

Because of all the above, and because in cases many people have friends
that are now in opposite camps, and others have had their future
employment options "changed" there are many people in awkward
positions. No wonder many of them are keeping their heads down.

However they still seem committed to getting something going and are
working furiously to get out of their current commitments and getting
together a new business model, web site etc.

Ann and Jim have gone fishing/sailing/shooting (I forgot which one) for
a period to calm down - but I understand they will be back at some time
in the future - (that explains the lack of messages from them).



What is open sourced:
The source.

What was missed:
The latest CVS tree (and we hope will be released).


What is not:
The names mainly InterBase, ISC, IB etc.
The test suite.
The documentation.
(If you have a spare 10Mil to help purchase the other half of an
opensource project then have Inprise got a bargain for you).


What's not sure:
The contributed mods that were done for unpaid work.


However InterBase has been opensourced, (Although it seems only Inprise
can actually use the name). This at least is still a major milestone,
and is potentially a new beginning.




So who am I. I used InterBase about 10 years ago, I started lurking on
these news groups about February when I found it was going to be
opensourced, and I could potentially use it. Apart from that I have
never had anything to do with any of the players other than what I have
seen or posted on these lists. Except for today, where I chased a few
things up.


All the above is totally my own opinion, and if you spot an error, or
have a clarification or a different option please reply to the post, so
others can see your comments and judge for themselves.

Unfortunately with all the angst generated in the last few days, I think
many people have been left with frayed nerves, and strong opinions.
Hopefully time will heal some of the wounds and new bonds will be
forged.


However in the meantime, in the spirit of open sourcing, when there is a
stoush, the parties seperate for a bit. So Im announcing that Im going
to be actively supporting getting an independant build of interbase up
and going, currently were looking at calling the project FireBird. More
details in a seperate post.


Regards

Mark O'Donohue

PS: Sorry but I don't have a 3k illegible legal paragraph to append to
this post.