Let's make things clear up front. I've been a fan of InterBase (a database really ahead of its time and still ahead of many of its competitors) and I've grown very fond of Firebird, a database I use more frequently than InterBase these days. Same architecture, plus an open source project (really and fully open source, unlike MySQL) that's  alive and kicking. And it's free, and this can help. Both provide a great back end for Delphi client/server applications and for many other languages as well. Small footprint and minimal multi-OS installation make it look so much better Microsoft's recent free SQL Server Express... but I digress.

Now what triggered this post was a rather cryptic message in non-tech by Ivan Cruz titled "Bridges are being rebuild?" and containing only a link to the last post by Malcolm Groves about the coming Australian Delphi Users Group meeting. The reason is that the event sees a speech by Helen Borrie, of Firebird book fame, and Malcolm praises her presence. Now this is a very subtle clue about a possible change in the relationship between the InterBase crew (part of DevCo) and its open-source twin.

However, this will certainly be an interesting test of the openess of DevCo to its own community. It was Borland that open-sourced its own database. It is Delphi developers who are using Firebird in large numbers. There were personal fights in the past, but this was in the past. I fully agree it is now time to rebuild this bridge and find a way to collaborate for the developers of the two tools (to the benefit of their user communities, which in reality is a single one). I don't know exactly how, but anything would be better than just ignoring and occasionally bashing each other!