Hi Andy, I know nothing about 3-tier, dbExpress or IBX, but want answer
anyway!

>We are starting a project using Interbase, and are using Delphi 6. We
>are looking to also ahve it running under Linux as well.

IBO will be ported to Kylix.

>The application is 3 tier with the majority of database comonents placed
>on the server as opposed to the client. As a result, there will not
>be any live result sets as such, and most transactions are all based
>on the server as opposed to user input (this is a brief overview).

Sounds like you will never take advantage of some of IBO's strengths.

>I understand that IBO offers many more features and features (in
>terms of working with interbase) than IBX, but we are not sure
>whether they are fully needed (although an easy to implement clunky
>IBX solution may lead to scaleability problems later as opposed to a
>more elegant IBO solution).

Most of the features of IBO are not "fully needed", but they can make
development so much easier and will save you time once you get the hang of
it. IBO has won the "Best Database Connectivity Award" from Delphi
Informant every year this century ;o) and it is not accidental. The
features will probably make much of your coding with IBX redundant, and in
general they work as expected. It would surprise me if an IBX solution was
any simpler to implement, particularly if you spend $30 on the IBO Getting
Started Guide (I assume the changes in IBO4 is no greater than for this
guide to still be useful).

>Or, we are not sure whether to go with dbExpress, has anyone seen any
>stats on the performance of dbExpress when compared with custom
>dataset components like IBO/IBX or Oracle components under the oracle
>database.

No, but it would surprise me if a general set of components could compete
with any set specifically tailored for Interbase/Firebird. My guess is that
dbExpress can be useful if you want the ability to switch databases,
whereas IBO ought to be your choice if you decide to go for Interbase (I
think Jason mentioned something about including support for one other
database, but I guess that is way into the future and I don't think it was
Oracle).

Good luck in checking out the components - and tell us about your choice,
whatever it becomes,

Set