— Both talks address concerns that are of interest the most novice of Firebird users ("Why does gfix think my database is broken?" and "What's the big deal about multi-threading").  The talks start with the basics and then move into more complex understanding of the underlying issues (careful write, threading alternatives) that may suggest future directions for Firebird. Jim Starkey and I will share both talks.  I'll address the way things are now, using my experience on the Firebird Support list to respond to common questions.  Jim will talk about his post-Firebird experiences — he's written four more relational databases, each with different ways of dealing with on-disk consistency (the gfix issue) and threading.

 

 

— The best feature of Firebird, from my perspective, is that it doesn't fight back.  It's easy to install, requires very little tuning, and runs on lots of different platforms in multiple configurations: embedded, classic, and now multi-theaded server.  Performance and reliability are givens — without them, you can't have a product. I also like the fact that Firebird can be distributed with commercial products without a license fee, so it's attractive to application builders outside the US. As for V3, beyond question, my favorite feature is the multi-threaded shared server.  Giving users the full use of their multi-processor servers without the overhead of a process per connection really moves Firebird into a new era.