advantages and disadvantages of FIREBIRD SQL?

what are the advantages and disadvantages of FIREBIRD SQL?

Advantages:

• It's free
• It's open source
• It's pretty cool :-D
• Very sophisticated
• Over 15 years of history

Disadvantages:

Surprisingly low number of users that makes you wonder...

Where did you get that idea?

Since it's first appearance on Sourceforge, as a new project, Firebird has had over 1 million downloads and lots of companies who are running v1.0.x in their production environment.

To be honest, got that idea here:

http://forums.devshed.com/forumdisp...p?s=&forumid=28

(Number of topics/posts)

And here:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Com...es/Open_Source/

And I quote:



Add to this the fact that it is not supported in the current version of PHPBB.

So maybe it is a new database.. But it still seems that there aren't too many users (=support) out there.

P.S Not trying to be nasty. I am currently considering migration to Firebird and that's partly what's holding me back (that and phpbb).

download the phpbb2.1 (aka 2.2) it supports firebird (give it a try)
http://area51.phpbb.com/cvs/

we almost beat the mysql in 2003 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards on Database of the Year Poll

http://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...threadid=116360

Oracle and db2 have a less users (that buy them) than mysql . What you gonna say : oracle is bad because is less dowloaded/used than mysql ?
ps: you can help us with promoting firebird
write articles, show it to friends ..etc (like the linux movement) : do something do anything

Less posts to a support forums means less users?

I'd rather say it's easier to use

Either way - this forum is fairly new. The MySQL forum exists since 1999, while this one exists since Aug 2003... Quite a difference, no?

Really: look around.

There's a very good support list at Yahoogroups -> firebird-support@yahoogroups.com

Yes, Firebird - by itself - is still new. The product, however, is quite mature and has a long history. Check www.cvalde.net and browse for the History of InterBase... Have a good read.

VitalyB is right , FirebirdSQL does not have a very strong presence YET , but if what people are saying about it it's true , I guess we can just wait and see that soon .

I've been using PostgreSQL for a while now and I am anxious to give Firebird a try . I'll let you know what advantages I find when I do use it but for now , the fact that it's web presence is poor and it's user base is low compared to the other DB;s that makes it a dissadvantage . IF anyone cares to contradict me on that , let me know so i could shoot my J2EE + Firebird questions at you , because i havn't been able to find anybody to help me with that

Try the "firebird-java" list at Yahoo. I believe David Jencks (?) hangs out there and he was part of JBoss and the first to start the Firebird native JDBC driver.

heh for now i have been strugling with creating a test db in firebird , as the instructions in the starter pdf are for windblows and all freeBSD examples i've found so far have failed me

anywais , i don't want to get offtopic too much ... thanks for the tip

in additional;

• Very good documentations (inside of Firebird Documentation Project)
• Jim Starkey
• Natural Windows and Linux release
• Very active and goodwill support group (Yahoo! groups)

Esref Atak

Firebird use to be Interbase - Interbase was and still is Borlands baby and sorry to say this but they did not try to make it a popular database - I guess it is due to lack of funds or something...
In my own opinion - it was heavily priced per seat in the past making companies rather use MS SQL.

Usage by other languages:
I come from a Delphi background so i know old Interbase pretty well - It has been shipped with every copy of Delphi & C++ Builder since 1995...well that is since i started working with delphi...So Interbase has always mostly been used with Borland products. - that explains it's limited usage by other languages.

Since the Firebird project started more and more developers from different backgrounds have started to develop on it - it is very stable, fast and has most of the features that a modern database has (a lot more than MySQL). It use to have some obviouse limitations like - now way to select a limited result set and no isnull converter statement but these problem have been sorted out.

So yes, it has a small user base but that is no reason not to use it. The user base has grown dramaticly over the last few years - i can see firebird becoming a real threat to M$ and Oracle in the next few years.

Dear all,

I have been using Borland's Delphi and C++ since 1995, and I used InterBase many times with these tools. The database was very stable and fast...

This time, another sibling from Interbase.... FireBird.
I have used it for last 6 months for my ASP.NET projects, and I still love the stability and usability. I don't see any problems as yet.... I do a lot of programming in backend using stored procedures, and FB has all features I want.

So far, very stable and no problems at all....!!!

Keep up the good work!

- JH

I think there are a LOT of advantages for Firebird over pretty much all other engines we've evaluated. Here's a list that I find valuable (your mileage may vary...):

1. Cost - FREE. Period. No special licensing requirements that means FREE for some, not for others. FREE across the board.

2. Platforms supported - Large number, but more importantly options for the style of database to be installed on each platform.

3. Great user support - it might be a small community, but its a VERY hospitable one and one that has the interest of the database well managed.

4. Single User Embedded Engine available - this is critical to us. We develop a vertical market product that is normally sold on a client/server framework, however in order for potential customers to try it out, I need to deploy a single user version. Firebird 1.5 has an embedded server option for Windows that is not only lightweight, but allows me to have one code base and deploy with so many different options.

5. Stored Procedures & Triggers - and they kick butt!

6. Truly Windows ported. Not a Cygwin implementation

7. Truly Linux ported too

8. This is a BIG ONE. Opportunity! If you know this database now, your value on the market is going to be huge. If I was handed an opportunity to get in 'on the ground floor' with a new database of this power, I'd be jumping at the chance. There are a lot of MySQL consultants out there. Lots of PostgreSQL ones too. I don't know of too many Firebird ones, but as more and more clients switch over to this database, you are going to be in HUGE demand as a consultant for work.

SO all of this together = ONE HELL OF A GOOD DATABASE CHOICE IMHO.

Myles

Good:
1. Free
2. Easy to learn/use
3. Highly SQL Standard Supportive
( not fully satisfactory though )
4. Stable
5. Good Free Management Tools Available
6. Unpack and Run Package
7. Data Change Notifying Events Support
8. Small in Size
9. Fast Development Speed

Bad:
1. Poor Optimizer
2. Poor Function Library ( UDF Available though )