The Firebird Project has released version 1.5 of the Firebird database engine, a fairly small yet full-featured database that runs on Linux. Firebird evolved from the July, 2000 release of InterBase by Borland.

Firebird is smaller than Postgres or MySQL, while offering more functionality than SQLite and other minimalist databases. It supports many advanced features, such as triggers and stored procedures.

According to the project Website, Firebird server and client are free of all licensing fees, whether downloaded as a binary, built from source code, or embedded within an application or device. Firebird is distributed under the InterBase Public License, a derivative of the Mozilla Public License. Users are invited to support the project by joining the Firebird SQL Foundation. Users may also purchase commercial support from IBPhoenix.

The v1.5 release represents a major upgrade to the engine, which has been developed by an independent team of voluntary developers, according to Firebird hacker Marius Popa. “Development on the Firebird 2 codebase began early in Firebird 1 development, with the porting of the Firebird 1 C code to C++and initial code-cleaning. Firebird 1.5 is the first release of the Firebird 2 codebase.”

According to Popa, the 1.5 release is a significant milestone, but not an end in and of itself. “As Firebird 1.5 goes to release, major redevelopment continues toward the next point release on the journey to Firebird 2,” said Popa.

Lots more information about Firebird is available on the Firebird SQL Website. The new release can be downloaded from SourceForge.Net now.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.