At 06:29 PM 1/03/2005 -0800, you wrote:

>Hi there,
>I am a new user with Firebird (I used to work on MS SQL)
>but believe this is a better solution to my needs.
>
>I need the basis to understand if I can use this DB as my final choice
>and would like to know where I can learn:
>
>1) Installation requirements
>2) Prerequisite
>3) Compatibility whit Windows 95 and above

Download the Quick Start Guide from the Firebird website. You can install
a Firebird server on any 32-bit Windows, even Windows 95 (with Winsock 2
installed).

>4) Version difference

I think you mean "architecture difference". Classic and Superserver differ
in the way they use resources. You can find a paper on this subject here:

http://www.ibphoenix.com/main.nfs?a=ibphoenix&page=ibp_ss_vs_classic

On Windows you also have a specialised architecture available for single
user usage: this is a Superserver and a client rolled into a single
loadable library - you don't have to have a full server installation for
this model.

>In another note, I heard something quite surprising about the capability to
>change something on the source code, recompile it and make it "my"
>proprietary database? Is that true?

"Your proprietary database" - no, that's not true. It's true that you can
compile and distribute your own version of the engine. Under the licence,
if you alter the source code, you are required to publish your
alterations. You are not allowed to compile the source code and distribute
it (free or not) as your own work.

NB, please don't post any more support questions in the firebird-devel
list. See the Lists and Newsgroups section of the Firebird website
(http://firebirdsql.org) for the purpose of each list and please try to
honour the requests expressed there about list usage.

You will find a lot of your questions answered in the Novices and FAQ
sections of the website.

./heLen