At 02:12 PM 24-08-00 +0200, Don Schoeman wrote:

>I'm about to start developing a new accounting package and are looking for
>alternative database server systems. I'm very excited about the power and
>simplicity of InterBase and before I start the project planning I want to
>know which database system I'm going to use.
>
>Question 1:
>Did Borland/Inprise/(almost CorelInprise) decide to drop Local InterBase
>from their development packages? I'm a Delphi developer and would like to
>know whether I'm going to see the InterBase component package in Delphi 6.

Local InterBase and the InterBase component package are two different
things. Delphi has always shipped Interbase with a "local" server licence
and a four-user non-deployable licence. Since Delphi 3, they haven't been
part of the standard and professional versions. There was no InterBase
Express (the IBX components) before Delphi 5.

From now on, no licensing of InterBase is required at all, not for servers
and not for users. It is free. The IBX components are now Open Source and
also free. From Delphi 5, Borland began shipping free third-party open
source code on the distributions (although IBX was not Open Source when D5
shipped: it was in beta then, and proprietary). Will they include
InterBase and IBX on the D6 CD's? Possibly - anyone can do that now; but
anyone can download them, too.

>Question 2:
>How did the InterBase user license fee's work before the open sourcing saga.

InterBase was a commercial product. You bought a big box with CDs and
manuals and you paid for a server licence and as many client "seats" as you
needed. You could also buy (over and above the "seats") a maintenance
contract which could cover upgrades and a prescribed amount of support. It
was all fairly expensive. If you didn't have a maintenance contract, it
could be an expensive business upgrading, too.

>Question 3:
>How will the user license fee's work now and how much does it cost?

Nil. But maintenance contracts will still be paid for. Where this will
come from is now a matter for the open market. Inprise at the moment
doesn't have a support infrastructure. Others are preparing to provide it.

>Question 4:
>Even though I've only played around with InterBase and haven't done anything
>serious with it I can see that there's a lot of dedicated InterBase people
>out there. This question is directed to people such as Ann Harrison and Paul
>Beach. From who and how will the IB-Phoenix people receive their income?
>Will it be from the user license fee's only? People have to make a living
>and nobody should work for free.

There won't be any user licence fees - for InterBase 6 and beyond, that
is. InterBase 5.x licensing is still a revenue source for Inprise - it is
not Open Source and definitely not free.

Companies that support InterBase will get their revenue from technical
support, training, consultancy, distributions, publishing and involvement
in commercial spin-off products. From the proceeds of those activities,
they will meet the cost of maintaining technical support for source code
development - involving (when income permits) permanent R & D staff to
assist and facilitate the Open Source development activity, QA people,
sponsoring contractors to work on specific developments not being done in
the community (drivers, new interfaces, et al.) What's different now is
that it will be support, not R & D, that dominates the product's commercial
context. The database itself is a commodity.

It won't be "money for jam" and it will be hard work for everyone. It is
"hard play" as well. <G> It's also (already) an exciting new way to do
product development that is looking very, very good - many more pairs of
eyes on the ball, eyes that are platform-focussed in ways that are just not
feasible in a closed development environment, a great deal of pooling of
ideas by very smart, dedicated, interested people, close collaboration
between users and product developers (who, in some cases, are in both
roles) and the potential to have product wish-lists satisfied in weeks,
rather than years.

My 0.02c...
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.)