Inprise/Borland(TM) is pleased to issue this statement of direction with
regards to the
InterBase(R) open source project and our commercial releases of
InterBase. We are committed to supporting the InterBase product line,
our valued customers, and the many respected partners and third-parties
who add value to the product and provide quality support and services to
the many InterBase customers worldwide.

We feel there is much to be gained from the collective enthusiasm and
talent inherent in the open source movement, notably the ability to
further InterBase by tapping the many and varied resources available in
the community. We feel it is important that Inprise/Borland(TM)
continues to provide our installed base - including corporate customers,
VARs, OEMs, and government clients - with certified commercial
releases. So, we have determined to both actively support our InterBase
open source project and continue to certify and release commercial
versions of InterBase.

Open Source

Over the past few weeks, we have been working to make our InterBase
project hosted on Source Forge(TM)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/interbase more complete and better
organized. Currently there are four projects hosted on Source Forge by
Inprise:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/interbase – The main InterBase 6.0
project
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ibconsole – IBConsole
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ibx – InterBase Express
http://sourceforge.net/projects/interclient – InterClient

The new InterBase 6.0.1 binaries and kits have also been updated on
http://www.inprise.com/interbase/downloads/, correcting the problems
encountered with some of the original kits posted July 25, 2000. We are
also preparing documentation, build procedures and other documents to be
used as reference materials for the InterBase community. It is from
these documents that we hope the community will guide itself when taking
an active role in this open source development project. We will also
make a series of test suites available to the community for developers
to check code against before submitting it to the tree for review.

Please look for the IBTests project to be active in the next few days on

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ib-tests.

The individuals on the build committee (“committers”) will continue to
be identified over the coming weeks. Our vision is to have a solid team
of committers that is split between individuals internal and external to
Inprise/Borland, the list of which we will further publish as committers
are identified. Additional news and information regarding InterBase and
the Inprise open source project will periodically be posted on the
Inprise and Source Forge sites.

Due to the nature of the open source license, other entities are
empowered to certify their own versions of InterBase. In support of
this, Inprise/Borland is evaluating how to license a meaningful
assortment of QA test suites to members of the community. We will also
be evaluating the use of copyrights and registered trademarks owned by
Inprise/Borland relative to the InterBase name. We are working to make
all important decisions as quickly as possible and will post
information on www.inprise.com/interbase as it becomes available.

We ask for your continued encouragement and input as we work to make our
InterBase open source project successful. Your comments are
appreciated and can be directed to interbase@... or posted to
one of the many newsgroups, found at:
http://www.inprise.com/newsgroups/#interbase.

Inprise/Borland Certified Releases

Periodically, Inprise/Borland will test and certify versions of
InterBase for commercial release. The first of these will be a
derivative of the InterBase 6.0.1 code which has been posted to Source
Forge. We are in the process of certifying the final components of this

release and will then make it available to our customers and partners
via our regular distribution channels. Inprise/Borland will resume its
marketing and sales efforts around certified releases of InterBase and
will meet customer commitments and offer support and services
http://www.inprise.com/devsupport/interbase/ in conjunction with these
releases.

We encourage third-party companies to offer support and services for all
versions of InterBase, including open source versions and any
other-certified releases. This is a great opportunity for the many
talented developers, consultants, and trainers who are members of the
InterBase community worldwide.

In addition, Inprise/Borland is currently in search of a Manager of the
InterBase product line who will also be active in the open source
project. A detailed job description will be posted at
http://www.inprise.com/about/hr/ within the next several days. This
person will be tasked with running the InterBase line of business which
will include both managing the release process for certifying releases
of InterBase and acting as a single point of contact for
Inprise/Borland to guide and communicate our proposed directions for the
Inprise open source project. Interested candidates should apply by
emailing their resume to resume@...

Thank You for Your Support!

InterBase is a strong product with a loyal following. Without the
strength of the community, the direction we are now taking would not be
possible. We look forward to supporting the product going forward and
joining the open source movement to create ever-better versions of
InterBase.

It is an exciting time to be at Inprise/Borland and I look forward to
the opportunities ahead as we focus on bringing to market our superior
development tools, including InterBase, and our best-of-class
Application Server(TM) solutions. Again, I thank you for your interest
in InterBase and look forward to supporting the success of your various
endeavors.

Respectfully,

Frank Slootman
VP – Software Products