Tasmanian newspaper tames open source Firebird

20.07.2006
While high-profile open source efforts like MySQL and PostgreSQL slug it out with the big four commercial databases, a Tasmanian newspaper is betting on the lesser-known Firebird SQL server for its B-to-B Web applications.

Two years ago The Examiner, based in Launceston, Australia began investigating software for its new online B-to-B initiative, which started as proof-of-concept so a "cheap" database that could handle hundreds of simultaneous users was sought by the company's systems developer Nigel Weeks.

Weeks started out with MySQL, which is "brilliant for light reads and simple queries", but "curls up its toes" when it comes to complex queries and business logic.

"Firebird uses a very similar query structure to MySQL so any developer can switch," Weeks said. "It's just getting your head around transactions, but once that's done there is a whole world of possibilities."

Firebird is a community project based on the InterBase source code originally released by Borland in 2000. The Firebird Foundation is now based in Glenning Valley, New South Wales.

Weeks praised Firebird's "super server" architecture, which is a "drop-in replacement" for MySQL and can do whatever MySQL can do "with its eyes closed".