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Interbase roadmap.

    As more information is available, there will be a more complete history of the Interbase versions. If you have something to contribute (dates of minor releases, important improvements in each release, etc.) then let me know. In 2001, Borland deleted the press releases from 1994 to 1997 in their web site and later they did the same up to 1999 (as if those pages took too much space), so those links no longer work: Those that do not remember their past are condemned to repeat it again and again, but anyway:

    • 1976-1981: Jim Starkey wrote Datatrieve at DEC.
    • 1981-1984: DEC started RDB, their first relational database. Jim got impatient and started coding his own version, named JRD.
    • 1983: Philippe Kahn founded Borland International.
    • 1984-1985: Jim Starkey, Ann Harrison and Don Depalma signed contract with Apollo Computer, a workstation company, founding Groton Database Systems.
    • 1985: Dave Root left Apollo to become the fourth founder.
    • 1986: Groton became Interbase and grew for 5 years.
    • 1986: Interbase 2.
    • 1986: Ashton-Tate invested in Interbase.
    • 1988: Interbase 3.
    • 1988, summer: Cognos started working with IB.
    • 1988: Ashton-Tate purchased 51% of Interbase.
    • 1989: Cognos released StarBase on VAX/VMS., based on IB 2.X.
    • 1991: StarBase was offered by Cognos on HP-UX, DG/UX, Ultrix, SunOS/Solaris, AIX and SCO, based on IB 3.X.
    • 1991: Ashton-Tate purchased all of Interbase.
    • 1991, October: Borland bought Ashton-Tate.
    • 1992, early: Cognos released StarBase for HP MPE/XL.
    • 1992: Interbase 3.3 was released in June. This was the first version with International European support. Followed the release of v3.2J (Japanese only release).
    • 1992, late: Cognos stopped using the name StarBase and continued with the IB name.
    • 1994: Interbase 4 appears.
    • 1995, January 9: Borland ships Interbase 4.0 WorkGroup Server for Win NT and for Novell Netware.
    • 1995, February 10: Borland launches WWW site.
    • 1995, April 24: Borland sells Delphi 1 C/S. Interbase 4.0C is included.
    • 1995, September 15: Interbase unveils InterClient.
    • 1995, September 25: Magnavox selects IB4 in $3.5 million database deal for U.S. Army. Borland announces InterBase 4 for Unix.
    • 1995, October 19: Ernst & Young Consulting wins ACS Software Challenge using Borland's Delphi and InterBase.
    • 1995, December 15: Borland announces exclusive agreement with premier system integrator in Japan - Rios Corporation. This is the origin of IB4 for Linux and FreeBSD at Rios Corporation.
    • 1996, March 4: Borland announces availability of Delphi 2. Interbase 4.1 is included.
    • 1996, May 29: Borland announces InterClient, the JDBC driver for Interbase.
    • 1996, July: Gary Wetsel resigns as Borland CEO. William F. Miller is named interim CEO.
    • 1996, August 20: Borland announces Interbase 4.2.
    • 1996, September 25: Whitney G. Lynn is named interim president and CEO. Paul Gross, senior VP of R&D, resigns.
    • 1996, October 21: Corel licenses Paradox database from Borland.
    • 1996, October 30: Borland ships IB 4.2.
    • 1996, November 7: Philippe Kahn, founder of Borland, resigns as Director.
    • 1996, November 25: Delbert W. Yocam is appointed Chairman and CEO.
    • 1996, December: Jason Wharton delivers IB_Objects (IBO) 1.0.
    • 1997, January 17: Borland awards a worldwide software and trademark master license for ReportSmith to Strategic Reporting Systems.
    • 1997, February 26: Borland ships BCB 1.
    • 1997, April 29: Borland forms ISC subsidiary to expand market opportunity for its InterBase product.
    • 1997, May 5: Borland announces Delphi 3 C/S Suite. Interbase 4.2 is included with Delphi 3.
    • 1997, July 15: Corel licenses SQL Builder, Interbase, LIBS and SQL Links from Borland to include them in Corel Paradox 8.
    • 1997, September 15: Interbase unveils InterClient ready to ship.
    • 1997, December 1: Interbase 5.0 is released.
    • 1998, February 10: Borland announces BCB 3. With BCB, Interbase 5 is included.
    • 1998, June 8: Borland international stockholders approve name change to Inprise Corporation.
    • 1998, August 5: Interbase 5.1.1 is included with Delphi 4.
    • 1998, August 12: Inprise transfers Visual dBase to Interbase subsidiary.
    • 1998, August 20: Interbase 5 for Linux is announced.
    • 1999, January 27: Inprise creates two separate divisions: Inprise and borland.com. Jim Weil, president of Interbase, is named president of the Inprise division. John Floisland, senior VP of worldwide marketing, is named president of borland.com.
    • 1999, February 2: Inprise launches borland.com. Interbase 5.5 is included with BCB4.
    • 1999, March: FIBPlus version 1 by Serge Buzadzhy.
    • 1999, March 12: Inprise licenses Visual dBase to Ksoft, Inc.
    • 1999, March 31: Inprise announces the resignation of Delbert Yocam (CEO) and the CFO.
    • 1999, April 13: Inprise names Dale Fuller interim President and CEO.
    • 1999, mid: Interbase 6 - kinobi in private beta testing.
    • 1999, June 8: MS and Borland deal. The total value of investment and payment from MS to Inprise is US$125 million. This includes the right to use Inprise-patented technology in MS products.
    • 1999, August: FIBPlus version 2.
    • 1999, September 7: Inprise announces an alliance with Dunstan Thomas Limited to provide professional services for Inprise technology in the UK, Nordic, Benelux and Eastern European regions. Dunstan Thomas is an Interbase partner, too.
    • 1999, September 10: Inprise ships Delphi 5 with Interbase 5.5.
    • 1999, October 25: Interbase 5.6 available on Novell Netware 4.2 and 5.0 and Windows platforms (32 bits). IB5.6 was offered as a free upgrade for IB5.X licensees on Windows; for the first time a free upgrade.
    • 1999, December 14: The resignation of 3 key people at ISC (Bill Karwin, Paul Beach and Wayne Ostiguy) halts Interbase development.
    • 1999, December 17: Greg Deatz discovers the facts and posts to Mers with "Bad rumors abound" subject. Steve Tendon coined the term "black Friday" to refer to the exact date when the bad news were known. (Ironically, this day was my birthday, so I couldn't receive a worst gift.) First fiasco. Tidal waves start flooding Borland newsgroups. The "SaveInterbase" emailing list is created by Helen Borrie to avoid losing IB forever. The IBDI Group (IB Developer's Initiative) is founded by Helen Borrie, Jason Wharton and Dalton Calford to safeguard the interests of Interbase users.
    • 1999, December 21: Two other ISC engineers resign.
    • 2000, January 3: Borland announces IB6 will be open sourced and challenges other vendors to open-source their database products. SaveInterbase is replaced by IBDI. Borland's shares soar for some weeks as a result of the announcement.
    • 2000, February 7: Corel - Inprise/Borland announce a future merger to create a Linux powerhouse in the next months.
    • 2000, February 14: A new company is being created. Ann Harrison accepts the challenge of being the new ISC President and Jim Starkey will be technical advisor. (Isn't that Apple brought back its former people, too?) A series of IB-*** emailing lists are created with specific purposes.
    • 2000, February 29: Paul Beach named Interbase VP Sales & Marketing.
    • 2000, March, 22: Borland announces availability of BCB5. It ships with Interbase 5.6.
    • 2000, April 27: Due to lobby from some shareholders and users, Borland reevaluates the merger with Corel.
    • 2000, May 16: Borland and Corel terminate proposed merger.
    • 2000, May: FIBPlus version 3.
    • 2000, June 30: Second fiasco. IB6 is not released in time as expected due to pending legal issues.
    • 2000, July 14: Dale Fuller authorizes Cobalt Networks to distribute IB6 binaries with their platforms.
    • 2000, July 25: Inprise and not ISC is the company releasing Interbase 6.0 as a free and open source database, but without the documents and without the basic test suites. Is this a decent and honest open source offering? No ISC exists as an independent or subsidiary company.
    • 2000, July 28: Third fiasco. Ann Harrison resigns to her position of acting as General Manager for the Interbase part of Borland. The deal between ISC and Borland has died. Borland's Ted Shelton delivers an official press release to IB-Architect before the article is posted in the web site. Borland prefers to retain the product "in the interest of shareholders".
    • 2000, July 31: A group of enthusiast people create the Firebird tree at Source Forge, because the Interbase tree doesn't admit external people as developers.
    • 2000, August 23: The IBPhoenix group unveils the www.ibphoenix.com site, with Ann Harrison and Paul Beach among others. Ann states that IBPhoenix is not affiliated with Inprise(r) in any way.
    • 2000, September 8: Inprise publishes an open letter to our InterBaseŽ customers, signed by Frank Slootman VP - Software Products. The person that established the first contact after the ISC deal died, Ted Shelton, is not longer in charge of the engine, because it was transferred to the Business/Enterprise division, even thought the Inprise website doesn't reflect that change at that time.
    • 2000, November 27: Inprise issues a press release, announcing Jon Arthur's promotion to Director of Interbase, reporting to Frank Slootman, VP of Software Products.
    • 2000, December 18: Frank Schlottmann-Goedde spots an hard coded password plus a bizarre internal UDF in IB, while working on the Firebird Project. Those breaches were there since 1994. Inprise is alerted discretely.
    • 2001, January: Inprise is Borland again (BSC).
    • 2001, January: FIBPlus version 4.
    • 2001, January 10: CERT advisory: compiled back door plus doomsday internal UDF in IB made public along with different patches from IBPhoenix and Borland.
    • 2001, January 11: Slashdot devotes a large thread to the backdoor.
    • 2001, January 14: The Register publishes an article about the same security breach.
    • 2001, March 14: Borland comes back to the paid releases.
    • 2001, July 19: IBO v4 is released.
    • 2001, November: Yaffil development is initiated by Aleksey Karyakin and Oleg Loa, based on Firebird, with improved productivity.
    • 2001, December 4: Borland announces IB 6.5. Do not get confused by that press release, however, since the open source version doesn't have the new features listed here. Bill Todd's explanation of the same features is here.
    • 2002, January: IBDI founders announce the dissolution of the group. Technical content moved to the Firebird site.
    • 2002, March 12: Firebird 1.0 Final Release
    • 2002, October 29: Borland announces InterBase v7.
    • 2002, November 20: The FirebirdSQL Foundation is formally incorporated to raise development funds for Firebird.
    • 2003, June 17: Borland announces InterBase v7.1 with support for MS' dot-net.
    • 2003, December 2: Yaffil announces its source code will be merged with Firebird.
    • 2004, February 21: Firebird 1.5 Final Release.
    • 2004, April: Paul Ruizendaal reports that he was able to port Compiere to FB with minimal modifications thanks to his Oracle PL/SQL emulation layer.
    • 2004, May 27: Nigel Weeks releases OpenAspect, a scalable, dependable, high-speed open source business management system, based on FB.
    • 2004, August 2: The Firebird Book by Helen Borrie is published by Apress.

If you want to know more about the full history of Interbase, go to the miscellaneous section. If you want to know about what IB can do, go to the features section. If you want specific information, go to the documentation section.

 

This page was last updated on 2005-01-01 23:56:48 -0400 .