<<What's this Cobalt Networks issue ?
Pardon my ignorance, but I do not know them.
And never read about them since the 'black' december.>>

Cobalt are a relatively new company who manufacture "appliances" - the Qube
and the RaQ, typically initially for ISPs, but are expanding their
portfolio.
The IPO'd last year, and are curently being very sucessful in growing their
business - i.e. they are a name to watch in the Linux appliance market.

I have spent 18 months cultivating a close business and R&D relationship.
The upside of this relationship is simply this, they have agreed to ship
InterBase pre-installed on all future versions of the systems that they
release. We have a deadline to meet for the next major release of one their
products, and I for one want InterBase on their system. But until the deal
with Inprise closes, I can't authorise this - only Inprise can. So I am in
the process of asking Inprise to give Coablt a release for the binary
versions of InterBase 6.0, so they can release their new product with
InterBase pre-installed as the database of choice.

Its a big win for us.

At the conference Cobalt issued an Open Letter to InterBase developers that
ran like this... (See Below), this will go up on our web site, if the
release for 6.0 for Cobalt happens. At the same time Ann and I are trying to
get the 6.0 binaries released so that you can all start shipping your
applications. The source code will follow when the agreement closes
(allegedly 2 weeks more from the time of the Borland Keynote that Dale
gave).

An Open Letter to the InterBase Developer Community


To: InterBase Developers
From: Mark Orr, Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Development,
Cobalt Networks, Inc.
Re: Server Appliances
Date: July 6, 2000

By now you know that InterBase is joining the open source software
community.

What you may not know is that Cobalt Networks is bundling InterBase in its
future server appliance products.

Why does this matter?

Cobalt's history demonstrates that there is a very large and largely
untapped market for server appliances. Cobalt's Qube and RaQ products
deliver the core Internet services - web, email, file transfer - all within
minutes of opening the box. The end user is sheltered from the complexity
of Linux, as well as Apache, SendMail, and all of the other software running
on the machines. The incredible success of these products demonstrates that
large numbers of customers are hungry for powerful, reliable, network-based
solutions that are easy to use and maintain.

Cobalt developers have shared in this success. Scores have built on Cobalt'
s core services to create their own version of 'appliantized' solutions.
More importantly, they have been successful selling them.

By bundling InterBase, Cobalt is making it even easier for developers to
create their own appliances to meet the needs of specific customer segments.

In addition to increasing the total market opportunity, server appliances
also reduce the developer's costs of development, deployment, and support.
- Simpler Development. The developer - not the end user - determines what
is on the box. This eliminates any hardware, software, or operating system
uncertainty, thereby speeding development and testing.
- Simpler Deployment. Customers can evaluate a product immediately, certain
how it will function or perform "in the real world". Installation is
immediate, with no surprises. Sales cycles are shortened.
- Simpler Support. By knowing exactly what is running on a particular
machine, the need for support is reduced. The developer determines what
patches need to be loaded, and when. Installation requires only a mouse
click, eliminating the need for Linux expertise.

Are you interested in learning more?

If the appliance concept makes sense to you, join the Cobalt Developer
Network by registering at developer.cobalt.com. It's free, and you will
have access to a wide variety of technical information, documentation, and
code related to Cobalt's products, including the "single click install"
versions of InterBase. It will also give you the opportunity to purchase
developer units for a very substantial discount.

Once you have "appliantized" your application, Cobalt offers a range of
co-marketing services, designed to give you maximum exposure to Cobalt
distributors, resellers, and VARs, world wide.

If you have questions or need more information about Cobalt's co-marketing
opportunities, please send email to: bizdev@...

Happy coding!


Regards
Paul