February 14, 2011

Have you tried InterBase XE yet?

If you're a Delphi XE, C++Builder XE or RAD Studio XE user, you may have seen and hopefully installed the free InterBase SMP 2009 Developer Edition that comes bundled with those products.

What you may not know is there is a newer version of InterBase available called InterBase XE.

InterBase XE was released after RAD Studio XE so we weren't able to include it as part of the RAD Studio installer.

Get your free copy of InterBase XE Developer Edition

You're invited to download a free copy of InterBase XE Developer Edition from the Embarcadero web site. InterBase runs on multiple operating systems so you can choose:

  • InterBase XE Developer Edition for 32-bit Windows
  • InterBase XE Developer Edition for 64-bit Windows
  • InterBase XE Developer Edition for Linux
  • InterBase XE Developer Edition for Mac OS X
  • InterBase XE Developer Edition for Solaris

InterBase Developer Edition allows software developers to freely develop InterBase applications before they deploy them. All the functionality of InterBase Server Edition is included with Developer Edition. The Developer Edition allows new connections for 48 hours before a restart is required and supports up to 4 cores and 20 users (80 simultaneous connections). When you're ready to deploy InterBase on your server or embedded with your applications, there are several deployment license options including Desktop, ToGo and Server editions.

dbExpress in the Professional editions of Delphi and C++Builder XE supports local InterBase connectivity. In the Enterprise and Architect editions of Delphi and C++Builder you get both local and remote database connectivity. InterBase Express components are also available for connecting with InterBase from all editions of Delphi and C++Builder including the new Delphi Starter and C++Builder Starter editions.

15 comments:

PascalBoy said...

Why would anyone use Interbase XE desktop or To Go Editions with Delphi/C++ Builder with pricing as follows ? :

Desktop and To Go Licensing Cost per deployment = $20/E20 to $60/E60 exc Taxes Depending on license pack purchased.

Note the $1 = E1 yet again an excessive markup in my opinion for European customers.


Why not just use SQL Server 2008 R2 Express or SQL Server compact 3.5/4.0 with Visual Studio 2010 ?

Licensing Cost Per Deployment = Free.

Jolyon Smith said...

The same thought crossed my mind. I guess someone at Embarcadero thinks that the same people who use BlackFish might be interested in Interbase. Oh wait, no-body uses BlackFish do they... ?

Tim said...

Developers like InterBase because of its performance, reliability and ease of maintenance. All the other benefits of InterBase are listed on the web page.

It's the same situation as for any other piece of software where there are free or open source alternatives. When people find enough value in a paid product that's not available in the free alternatives, they pay for it.

Anonymous said...

I've used IB 7.5 + IBX for a long time, then shifted to FB + FIB and I'll never look back, even if IB were for free...

Anonymous said...

I agree with you Tim: You get what you paid for.

Professional production is more inclined to give you quality products. Free software, on the other hand, doesn't guarantee anything.

I would rather stick to something more solid and committed-to than a "get it free" product come with it what comes!

My company ships an accounting system utilizing InterBase XE. We are quite happy with it - to say the least.

We cannot afford reliability problems. That would hurt our reputation.

Anonymous said...

>>>"Professional production is more inclined to give you quality products. Free software, on the other hand, doesn't guarantee anything."

That's why Delphi 2005 and 2006 were so good. Tons of unresolved bugs.
Even Delphi 2010 has several problems. And the solution is to pay for Delphi XE. Good work Embarcadero. Just remember not to cry when all developers runaway to VS and .NET.

I use FireBird, for many year now. Don't want anything else.

Anonymous said...

For my applications the customer's information must be protected.

I used to use SQL Server Express and then FireBird. Neither has adequate security. IMHO :-)

However, InterBase has very strong security. I would not use anything else.

Keith

Jolyon Smith said...

@Anonymous positing profession vs free:

Whilst what you say can be true of *entirely* free software, SQL Server Express is a free edition of a professional product. Yes it has limitations compared to the paid for editions of the product, but it is otherwise from the same stable and has the same pedigree.

If you need the things that you cannot get from SQL Server Express for free then of course you should compare like for like with other paid for products.

But also please note the bait and switch in this post on which we are commenting.

"Get your free copy of Interbase" plus numerous references to "free" and "freely" etc etc, but NO direct mention of the fact that you then have to PAY to distribute your apps you are so free to develop.

It's that sort of devious and arguably misleading marketing that I personally take exception to.

"Free, with limitations" is one thing, but "Free, free, free (and you'll find out later that 'free' comes not with limitations but actual monetary cost)" is beneath contempt imho.

But when desperate to generate sales some people are prepared to plumb such depths I suppose.


If Interbase is so good and can be sold on its merits, why the need to resort to such deception ?

PascalBoy said...

@Jolyon Smith
You beat me to pretty much posting what you have done above. I totally agree !

Tim said...

I said it's a free Developer Edition, listed all of the restrictions of the Developer Edition, and gave a link to the deployment license options.

I don't say anything that should lead people to believe that the Developer Edition includes free deployment.

If you continue with the negative attacks and false accusations, I'm going to have to delete your comments.

Lars Fosdal said...

Why do you have to restart the Developer Edition server after 48 hours? Does it leak or something?
I really dislike gimped software.

PascalBoy said...

@Lars
Indeed I found that 48 hours then you have to restart limitation a bit puzzling here. Guess there is some concern about people using developer edition in production ?

David Brennan said...

Restarting every 48 hours seems a reasonable solution to the problem of releasing a fully featured product but making sure it isn't used in production. After all it sounds like the developer edition is less limited than say SQL Server Express in terms of users etc.

SQL Server Express is a great deal though, no getting around it and we use it to ship with our software. I imagine it is hard to compete with Microsoft on such things because they have the mindshare and marketshare to be able to do things other commercial companies struggle with.

Mario Enriquez said...

Tim,

We're using FireBird and it's working fine for our needs.

We also perceive InterBase XE to be a better platform than FireBird (specially security wise) and would really like to make the switch but the current license scheme doesn't work for us.

If you could (Embarcadero) come up with a reasonable one time payment fee, royalty free distribution scheme a la DBISAM. We'll be knocking your door.

Regards,
Mario

Anonymous said...

I just try RadPHP XE and thus product hung several time. I also try Delphi XE which Embarcadero says can produce 100% native Win32 but the IDE itself require .NET!

Since this product not handle but Borland then ... look like Delphi will leave buy their old client and new comers of course use another tools, like VB .Net, RoR, Java, etc.

The bad is Embarcadero not like to hear and answe forum, I see many questions not answered in Embarcadero forum.