> -----Original Message-----
> From: Fabricio Araujo [mailto:fabricioa@...]
> Sent: Viernes 27 de Abril de 2001 1:40
>
> Ok Markus, I read you how-to. Just a synthesis of the facts:

I tracked the main points in the IB Roadmap at my site. Since it was a
roadmap, I couldn't fill it with details.

> December 99: Bill Karwin, former product manager of IB on
> Borprise (Helen, correct me
> if I made a mistake here) and flames and hoaxes and all type of
> speculation about the
> death of Interbase Relational Database Server came and flow like
> lava rivers. This epoch
> is related, by the ones that were on NGs and message lists on
> that moment, as being
> the "Black December". Pressure at Borland CEO gets to the sky.

IB people resigned on Dec-14. The issue was known almost by accident on
Dec-17 and published immediately in Mers-list by Greg Deatz (author of the
freeUdfLib).

> Jan 2000: Borland ( called Inprise on that moment) announce the
> open of source code
> of Interbase RDBMS and Ann Harrison(original co-author of the
> software) initiates nego-
> tiations related to the expurge of Interbase line of products
> from Borland to a new compa-
> ny, commanded by her and Paul Reeves (initially)

The IB Webring was created on January 20 and the first members were IBDI,
IBO and my own site. Soon I had 7 members and interbase.com signed, too
thanks to Markus Kemper. When the Borland-IB site was restructured, they
pulled away from the ring by deleting the link. I invited them again but no
response in a couple of months. Be it their decision.

Jim started because ISC and EasySoft couldn't agree on the development
price. The gory details of the failed agreement are not clear as to comment
on them. Later, Easysoft continued developing their driver.

> IBDI born with the intention to gather people interest and
> enthusiasm on Open-Source Interbase.
> * Jason Wharton: creator of a component set for Delphi and C++
> Builder for native connec-
> tion Interbase using all its capabilities
> * Helen Borrie: well known IB user and collaborator in all suport
> lists (in that moment, the one
> that exist - the main one - was the one hosted on www.mers.com)

You missed the third member: Dalton Calford, from Distributel. He has
extensive experience doing large infrastructure (I almost wrote
netfrastructure <g>) with IB.

> August 2k - December 2K

[snip]

> * IBDI does not negate its' origin and gather a enthusiastic
> group to make the Firebird
> fly. Mark O'Donnahue was the first to offer his efforts - in this
> moment, to clean-up and
> create a source-base buildable outside Borland labs. Others
> engaged to the projects.

Actually, I didn't know Mark O'Donohue and Mike Nordell before second half
of y2000. Mark used IB in those prehistoric times (sorry, Mark) when Cognos
sold a separate version under the name StarBase and he returned to the
engine after several years of absence.

> Middle December 2K - Jan 2001
> - CERN alert about the "politically correct" backdoor. Firebird
> gets ahead and patch
> the source much before Borland. Fights about the merit of "who
> make the s* and
> why" fly around.

Actually, a firebird volunteer, Frank (he's a Pascal developer, I
understand) discovered the backdoor. Also, a destructive built-in UDF was
found... active in the release version, both since v4 series (with a clear
comment by Dave Schnepper). Firebird didn't do the politically correct
thing. Instead, Ann alerted Borland almost same day. The politically correct
action would have been to patch the issue silently and work on the press
release with CERN or worse, wait for Borland to release a certified version
and then chime in all directions. But since firebird is not a crew of
Borland haters, the product was privileged above "partisan fights" (as
Charlie Caro said) and so Borland was almost in time to push a "final
solution" (as they wrote) when the CERN article was released to public eyes.
What did firebird get in exchange? Flames.

C.