I agree with the people posting about lack of pr, it seems there is
nobody at hand who is willing and has the time and devotion to start a
movement in that direction. And that's okay and normal, but in the
long run, like it or not, if you want to survive, you need shiny
packaging.

You are judged by what they see of you with their eyes, not by what
feature they read. Of course features will always appeal to
developers, but they are just a tiny part of the machine, and not the
top one at that.

Let's say I'm brand new to the DB industry or I'm some kind of IT
manager in a small company looking for a db engine.
I ask my friends what free db engine they advise on using. Probably
they'd tell me Postgre or MySql and if by any chance I've got some
hardcore friends I might just hear the name Firebird.

And then what's the first thing I do? I take a look at their webpages.
And let's be honest, Firebird's just doesn't look like it should. If
I'd be that manager, I wouldn't choose (or better word maybe: trust)
firebird, because for example seeing the lack of reachable
documentation I wouldn't think this project is organized. And to be
honest, even though I did choose firebird, I don't feel the effort
behind it, please, push it in our faces. You need a webpage that'll
glue poeple's eyes on your logo and take their minds off MySQL or
Postgre or any other db engine.

And once a manager chooses a different engine big enough, you hardly
have a chance of knocking him off it. This is capitalism, you can only
sell your wares with good looks.

You mentioned the question of puting more money into pr or putting
more money into development. In my eyes (and the eyes of probably tens
of thousands) Firebird's PR is nowhere, how much of that would change
with the release of Vulcan?

But I did choose Firebird and why? Because I'm a maniac who loves to
poke around in things. The size and easy installation, the embedded
option and maybe mostly the event mechanism was what catched my eye.
First I chose mysql which periodicly corrupted my db, that's why I
even started looking for something else. And I do love it, but I don't
think our kind is the majority.

Are there any plans on upgrading the web page? You're in the news now,
not an opportunity to waste

Go firebird, go! :)
John