--- "romb2fibplus" <romb2fibplus@y...> wrote:

> I have discovered that number of messages in
> IBO support group becomes less and less.

This can indicate a number of things. First of all, there is about 8
years of history for IBO and I've been careful to keep all common
questions people bring to be entered into a database driven FAQ
engine. Not to mention the archives of my support list at Yahoo have
many years of information in them that people can search through.
Thus, for the most part, there are few questions to ask that haven't
already been answered in the past.

> In contrast to it, FIBPlus newsgroups have more
> messages from day to day. Devrace publishes 2-3
> new versions during a year, and Jason does not.

Up until about 12 months ago I used to release what I call sub-
releases a few a month. Up until about 6 months ago it was 1 every
month or two. Now it's been a while and I have a new release due any
day now. It is true I am havine fewer releases than I have in the
past.

I don't claim there are no bugs in IBO but I have found the vast
majority of my customers are VERY satisfied with its current state
and more greatly appreciate that the components are not in so much
flux as they used to be. IBO is extreemly solid, stable and feature
complete and does not need constant tweaking, thus destabilizing it.

I do have some work I'm doing to support new features Firebird is
making possible and this type of work is more than likely what will
drive future IBO releases. My goal is to keep IBO rock solid and
stable and give people a toolset they know they can use for years to
come.

> It means that when you purchase FIBPlus you
> get those 2-3 versions free of charge,
> because Devrace's upgrade policy enables you
> to get all new versions and updates for free
> during a year after purchasing.

IBO has ALWAYS allowed people to have free source updates for at
least a year's time after a purchase. In fact, I've been a bit too
lax and many people have had two and three years worth of free
updates. I've been very liberal in this area and hardly deserve a
negative slant in this regard.

> That was exciting and important, because new
> versions include bug-fixes and feature improvements.

Same thing for IBO.

> And you know yourself about 2003 Awards.

I totally forgot to even mention or encourage people to vote for
IBO. Had I applied some effort towards it I'm confident IBO would
have done much better. Sales and evaluation downloads for IBO are as
good now as they have ever been. There is no decline in IBO's
popularity, quality or customer friendly policies.

> It is clear for me that
> FIBPlus is growing before our eyes.

This is due mostly to the success of Firebird and the increase in
our potential customer base. I now have relatives coming to me and
saying they are seeing mention of it and it is catching on in a lot
of places. People that wouldn't consider using it before are now
using it. Even where I work at the Arizona Secretary of State we use
Firebird now.

> That is that IBO had in days of old.

There are no days of old for IBO. Things are great for it, in fact
as good or better than ever.

> So, we have purchased FIBPlus and I can
> assure you that we do not pity about it :).

I'm glad you are happy with it. Though I'd be curious to ask how
long it took you to convert over your BDE applications to FIBPlus
and to know how much re-engineering of the project code you had to
do. Please give us a brief sketch of your efforts there please.

My intuition tells me you are somehow trying to inject a bias
against IBO using information that is very lopsided,
misrepresentative and biased in its slant. Additionally, the fact
that your email address has embedded within it 'fibplus' suggests to
me you have motivations other than being purely informative and
accurate in the information you are sharing here.

Of course you are free say the things you have and I appreciate that
you qualified your remarks by admitting you actually know very
little about IBO (which is painfully obvious). I believe there is
little to gain for anyone in your efforts to cast a negative and
misrepresentative picture of IBO.

Let's build eachother up and celebrate the good things we each have
to offer. I'm pleased there are other viable products as it is an
indication of the success of the niche which I helped to pioneer.
Frankly, I'm highly flattered to see two other candidates in a niche
I was worried never would blossom.

I could be wrong about your intentions. If so, please accept my
apologies.

Regards,
Jason Wharton
www.ibobjects.com