This emerged from other threads where Jason mentioned his thoughts about making IBObjects v5.x publically available as open source.

There have already been some replies and can possibly be a little discussion about this subject so I thought I start a new thread.

First let me say something about myself.

I have been on this train since the birth of Firebird and even though I do not have the habit of posting things either here or elsewhere I’m a regular participant on all Firebird gatherings so chances are that we have meet in person.

I have not yet decided what I think on this, but my first initial thought is NO in that I prefer the way it is now.

The source of IBObjects is rather complex and have many aspects to consider during development. Thus it requires a steady and firm hand to steer ahead. Not an easy task to enroll so if open sourcing IBO the repository has to be RO-access and Jason is required for the foreseen future as I see it.

Thanks to Jason’s openness and always thinking good things on people he has this Trustware License that at least I have never heard of elsewhere.

That’s how I started using IBO and later I become a full paying user.

All it takes is to ask Jason about it and you got, I have never heard of anyone that didn’t comply. :-)

Along that, Jason has to my knowing always been willing to make the repository with sources available to who have asked, RO-access (with a few exceptions) of course but still.

So, even without having to put a dime for it, there has always been possible to get closely involved with the development.

I’m doing it since years, and I know others have as well. In fact I’m confident that Jason is encouraged by some of the discussions we have had, I remember that at one occasion the outcome was that a feature actually was reverted despite that it was a great deal of development involved.

I’m even preparing files with fixes and features for Jason to review as I write this.

With that said, I don’t see any difference how it is now except that Jason is taking a risk of losing income which in turn may affect quality of the code and future development and by that is affecting MY business.

Which leads to the question I would like to ask the members in this community using IBO for commercial development, how do you think this would affect YOUR business?

Regards,