Hi Martijn

> I'm not a very active member as a FB developer, but more as a tester and
> forwarding stuff (errors), mailing ideas and brainstorming about

things....
There is not a day in the past months that your name does not appear in the
lists. You are, in my point of view, a very active person in the FB
comunity.

> First, I use both InterBase and Firebird. Not only because of InterBase
> Workbench (which should be renamed perhaps?), but because:

hehehe. You will! One day, when FB get's the visibility we all want it to
have....

> 1) my part-time day-time job -> IB (because it's 'backed up' by a company)

Sorry, english is not my language. What do you mean with this? That you
spend time with IB because it's supported by Borland?
Goto http://firebird.sourceforge.net/, click 'Professional Services'. Goto
http://www.ibphoenix.com, click 'Service & Support'. These are the people I
want my customers to spend money with. If my customers use IB, I will
recomend this 'backup' links as well.
Just what you and I do for free all the time: we don't click the links, but
get that persons online everyday, always free to help...

> 2) my part-time InterBase Workbench job -> IB & FB (because it earns me

money)
More people you have moving from IB to FB more money you will earn. FB is
one of the best BD in the market today.

> 3) my part-time other job stuff -> FB (because it's free, bugfixed and

there's no need for licenses of course :)
You mention the most important (bugfixed), and forgot to mention something
that I use to say it's one of the most valuable things: we have a public
list of 'Open Bugs'. My customers will not use FireBird because it's free
(as Paul Schmidt from TriCats once said: 'there is no free software, the
cost takes another form'), that's what I use to keep my application cost
low. Clients always see the software cost as one, Application plus DataBase
engine. FireBird open source will benefict more the software development
companys that will benefict clients.

> When it comes to mailinglists and FB/IB support, I have but one thing to
> say:
> Please, not _another_ mailinglist to check!!

For what I think, this will be just for a period of time, until the other
lists die for itself. If we all redirect the people to the new lists this
will be a matter of time. But this time will be valuable to you: more people
using FB, more clients you can have buying 'WhateverYouDecide Workbench'. ;)

> I'm already a pretty busy man (not as busy as Claudio, who seems to be
> posting stuff 24hrs/day :) -- and to get support for FB I have to
> subscribe/check another mailinglist is a little bit too much. And I cannot
> answer questions to other peoples posts on yet another list - I simply do
> not have the time to keep up with that...

We all are. Developers earn their money selling their time. For us, time is
really money. That's why we must put our efforts putting FireBird with more
visibility.

When people buy Delphi they know that they can use IB. We all want them to
know that they can use FB as well.

FireBird is a well know product for us, developers. I feel more confortable
selling a FB application that selling an IB one, because I'm a tech person.
We all need something that will make our clients feel the same way when they
are going to buy a FireBird application.

Have an Happy New Year!

Artur Anjos