> I'm not saying that I like the move to "Personal, standard, Enterprise"
> as it is. I'm just arguing that maybe it's really a good move to

change it.

To comment on Set's original comment, I would put Classic under
enterprise, because that is the one that would normally be thrown
multi CPUs etc to deal with.

I think most people would agree that the naming conventions for the
different server modes is confusing. I wont criticise it though
because frankly, I haven't come up with a better name myself.

What we want to avoid is to be put on the same level as MSDE / Oracle
Lite (or whatever it is called). Firebird is in no way limited by
commercial decision. We do not have a paid-for version to flog. My
guess is that Oracle is rather scared by MySQL, Postgres and Firebird.
They probably wrote of MySQL as a toy, but the more features it gets,
the harder that argument becomes. The other two are already MGA,
already ACID compliant, already supporting various platforms, already
using SP / Triggers / Views etc etc, and are already used by an
increasingly large number of "potential" customers for Oracle.

Large companies with large budgets and large databases will use Oracle
for a while yet. They have the experienced DBAs who can operate them,
are capable of paying those license fees, and prefer to take a
conservative approach than risking. They prefer the devil they know to
something they do not know.

Where Firebird currently sits well (on a marketing level) is for
smaller projects where the price of MsSQL or Oracle license causes the
whole project to become unfeasible. Firebird runs on even the most
modest of database servers, and can be downloaded in a few seconds
from any broadband connection.

Having about a 2-3 MB additional footprint on top of your application
is very important if you are distributing over the web. I have said it
before, but I believe that long term, you are better off using
Firebird than some commercially limited DBMS such as MsSQL or Oracle
lite. The aim of these companies is to get you to buy their full
versions, not to give you something for nothing. If the particular
"free" commercial dbms does the job for your current project, that is
fine, but remember they are also trying to get you to be familiar with
their technology so that when you are choosing another dbms that their
free one will not be enough, you will naturally upgrade to their paid
version without a blink.

Adam