Borlands strength has never been databases. They tried killing Interbase
(most of the Interbase staff at Borland quit their job), was pursuaded to
open-source it, discovered that it wasn't the lousy database they thought
it was and tried to close it again. But Firebird had been born and it is
now living its own life basically with the same features as Interbase, but
without the uncertainty of being a database subject to the goodwill of Borland.

I like what Borland do to development tools like Delphi, but quite a few of
us got a shock from their treatment of Interbase and its users back in 1999
and 2000. The Firebird that rose from the ashes can never be killed like
Interbase once was, because it is open source and there is no owner who has
any right to kill it. The only real danger is that something new and
fabulous appears making all of us forget Firebird. But then that wouldn't
be a dangerous danger, because we would all change to something fabulous...

Set

At 16:35 13.09.2002 +1000, you wrote:

>Hi,
>
>This is moer on that longevity of Firebird thread that I started a week or so
>ago. The consultant who was uncertain about us relying on Firebird threw
>in the
>comment at the meeting that Borland has stopped development of Interbase.
>Doesn
>anyone know why Borland would give it away? Was it losing them money? I
>have the
>impression that interbase 6.5 is a development since they gave away the code,
>which would indicate the opposite. It's a confusing but fascinating picture.