> Yes, what I am looking for from everybody is a 10-line whitepaper
> on why to use Firebird.

more than 10 lines, but still:

Why Firebird is the right choice for Java applications?

- high throughput for Web applications - writers do not block readers
due to the optimistic concurrency control;

- advanced SQL support, triggers and stored procedures allows to move
some of the data processing logic to the server, which in turn
increases the overall performance; support for Java stored procedures
in server is coming soon;

- high performance - no other tested databases, that possess all the
features Firebird has, can provide comparable performance;

- standard compliance:
- JayBird JCA/JDBC driver is JDBC 2.0 compliant, can be directly
used as resource adapter in J2EE application server;
- JCA 1.0 compliancy allows easy deployment in J2EE application
server;
- fully supports JTA 1.0 guaranteeing data consistency when more
than one database is in play;
- has an advanced connection and statement pool that might boost
your application without changing a single line of code up to 100%;

- supported by different servers and frameworks: JBoss, Hibernate,
etc. can be used out of the box with Firebird;

- scales with your needs: you can start with embedded engine and
switch to multi-CPU database server without changing your application;

Roman