I think you are right with the licensing. With Linux, Firebird, etc noone
has a problem with you bundling their software with your app as long as you
don't make proprietary changes to their software. In this case you are not,
you just using the software as is so there shouldn't be any problem.

As for the client side development with Kylix...

Something I've fallen in love with and have had great luck with for
development of client applications is Python (www.python.org) when you mix
that with kinterbasdb (firebird / interbase driver for python) and wxPython
(cross-platform GUI toolkit) you can build cross-platform DB apps really
quickly and since often the computational stuff is handled by firebird you
don't even notice the performance hit of an interpreted language.

I really like this because:
1) Writing Python code is, IMHO, far easier than in any other language I've
ever used. This is true for small scripts to large applications. Python
has a huge standard library.
2) Python's license is very liberal and you can write your app in it,
bundle the whole mess together for commercial use or not and it's all good.
3) The actual applciation should work exactly the same on Windows, Linux
and others with no need to recompile anything or change GUI toolkits or
anything. It just works. You can also develop the app in Windows or Linux.
4) When you actually go to ship your source you can just remove all the .py
modules (source code) and leave the python generated .pyc files which are
your compiled binaries. It just works.

Python and mentioned libraries are quite mature and very worth the time to
learn. I've found I can push out stable, more or less bug free, DB
applications (albiet small ones) in only a few days of coding time compared
to the weeks it would probably take me in other langauges (Delphi aside).

Jeff

----- Original Message -----
From: <lester@...>
To: <ib-support@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 12:49 AM
Subject: [ib-support] Licencing


> Sorry to bring this up, but I was at a seminar yesterday
> about 'Embeding with Linux'.
>
> The only speaker who covered licencing was the provider of
> an (expensive) comercial alternative and his take was that
> you can never secure your software in Linux.
>
> I've been having a look this morning because I know I have
> seen the answers, but can't find them now.
>
> My simple view of things is as follows
>
> I install SUSE Linux from the box - no changes to it so no
> licencing problem, and the customer can have a copy of the
> disks - if they want them.
>
> I add Firebird, and just include the source as a matter of
> caution. ( You never know when you might need it on site and
> your laptop has failed <g> )
>
> I setup the customers database with their requirements, and
> at present all access is from clients on Win98 machines, so
> no further access to the linux server so - as I see it - no
> licencing problems.
>
> The sales pitch did hint that even your data was not 'safe'
> but we will ignore the bullshit. In this setup there is no
> potential problems, and the content and structure of the
> data can be safely secured.
>
> The next step is obviously to put the client on a Linux
> machine, but again, if I make no changes to system I am
> working on, then I do NOT have to release the code of my
> application - provided that I follow the rules on creating
> that code.
>
> Am I getting this right, and where should I have been
> looking to check it? While I am playing with Kylix for this
> step, I am finding that droping it may well be an option, as
> it is being more of a hindrance than a help <g>.
>
> --
> Lester Caine
> -----------------------------
> L.S.Caine Electronic Services
>
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