On 25 Apr 2001, at 17:54, markus.soell@... wrote:

> Why not have a Firebird association to handle financial things? The
> reason seems to be that these peoples want the money to go into their
> own pocket instead into Firebird.

This idea is not new, it was discussed some time ago and is still
on the table. But it's not easy to implement it as you may think.

> Anyway, who are you folks who work on the project? Are you all really
> ready to contribute your work to this project, knowing that a
> commercial venture makes money from your work?

Hell, it's normal in Open Source, just look around. Even you can
take a Red Hat, add few things and sell it (like Mandrake, my
beloved Linux distro). You can do that with Firebird too, everyone
can do that, so why not IBPhoenix ? The issue here is that
commercial ventures should pay back IN SOME FORM back to the
community. IBPhoenix prepaid its bills for at least a year, and I
believe that they will not change their mind in future.

> I'm not criticizing that they want to distribute CDs, that's the way
> OSS projects work, anyone can do it. But that the community shall not
> receive structures to well organize financing of its efforts (the
> association) and shall consequently not be able to sell CDs herself,
> just in order to make the business of IBPhoenix more lucrative,
> that's simply too much.

There is no business around Firebird or Open Source IB right now.
It's hard to start one in current circumstances, but many are trying,
not only IBPhoenix.

> Helen had some problems with my HowTo, in my opinion simply because I
> point out a really good structure in the best interest of the
> community whereas she and the folks at IBPhoenix prefer a community
> without useful structures, so that they can better profit themselves.

No, the problem is not that your suggestion is not good (it is, to the
extent), but the real problem is that's hard to implement in current
conditions.

Best regards
-- Pavel Cisar

Firebird - the most addictive database
http://firebird.sourceforge.net