> Luck is what we need.

And more luck in some situations wouldn't hurt neither. ;-)

> Currently I'm adding FB1.03 installation to my own applications's setup
> program. After installing my app, the user installs FB.
> They barely manage to get it done.

Well, I do find the Firebird installation fast and easy,
even for newbies. A short installation document with a
step-by-step instruction might help though.

> Now let's assume that I start using FB1.5 and that my customers have
> some other software running IB 5 or FB 1.
> >From what I have read here, it looks to me that I have to start visiting
> all my customers to get the co-existance of FB1.5 with others possible.

At least Firebird 1.5 gives you the opportunity to do so.
InterBase wouldn't. ;-)

There are at least two issues:

- The client library
- The server's port number for listening for incoming requests

The first can be solved by placing the client library into
your application directory. For the latter, there is an
exhaustive section in the Firebird 1.5 Release Notes, how
one can configure the port, Firebird 1.5 should listen.

Perhaps there is a solution, so that the installation
works fine. Anyway, you still have to cope with existing
Firebird users moving to security.fdb (if you would like
to do so), and the recommended backup/restore cycle when
upgrading the Firebird Server version.

> Or are there any plans to make it more or less automated, so that user
> can just click Yes/No/Maybe?

I don't know. I'm sorry.


HTH,
Thomas Steinmaurer
LogManager Serie - Logging/Auditing Suites supporting
InterBase, Firebird, Advantage Database and MS SQL Server
Upscene Productions
http://www.upscene.com