Back to Newsletter Archive
DB4O TO OPEN SOURCE ITS DATABASE UNDER A DUAL-LICENSE REGIME - WILL INCLUDE A FREE GPL VERSION IN NOVEMBER 2004
db4o has open sourced its object database engine. The engine will be available as open source to the general public in November 2004, and is immediately available to our db4o Developer Network (dDN) members. Having access to the source code for the object database engine enables you to achieve even tighter integration between the object persistence layer and your application; to easily build custom enhancements like a specific encryption algorithm; or to simply better understand the working of db4o to tune your application.
Starting in November, db4o will also be offered as free and open source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL) to replace our current, restricted evaluation version. This gives the entire community the ability to learn, evaluate and use db4o free of charge. Our commercial license will be available for product developers who embed db4o into their own applications but do not wish to distribute them as free software under the GPL.
Apart from the immediate benefits for developers from having access to db4o's source code, all db4o users benefit from a huge growth in our installed base as db4o spreads throughout the open source community. Furthermore, open sourcing our product helps us to further improve our software quality, because our source code will receive broader and deeper scrutiny, including more precise bug reports.
It is important to note, however, that db4o does not accept community contributions under the GPL and will remain a proprietary open source product like MySQL's relational database. By keeping product management and development in-house, we can better pursue a strategic product roadmap and remain the one and accountable partner for our commercial customers.
DB4O FOCUSES ITS POSITION AS A NATIVE JAVA AND .NET OBJECT DATABASE FOR EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS
db4o makes the life of software developers much easier, because you need to write a lot fewer lines of code than when using OR mapping, non-native APIs or flat file and do-it-yourself solutions. Fewer lines of code not only translates into more than 50% cost and time benefits when writing a persistence API, but also makes your software easier to maintain, refactor and reuse. Reduced complexity results in reduced administration, smaller footprint and incredible speed gains.
While all object-oriented developers benefit from these characteristics, the embedded applications developers are those, that embrace db4o fastest and get the most value from it. We therefore focus on the embedded applications market to clearly differentiate from other ODBMS vendors, who target enterprise-type installations. Typical db4o applications can be found on mobile devices, in medical devices, in set-top box games, in automobiles and as realtime databases in integrated control systems.
In short, db4o is the embedded object database for Java and .NET.
DB4OBJECTS, INC. DRIVES BUSINESS FROM SILICON VALLEY WITH EXPANDED MANAGEMENT
Incorporated in July 2004 and based in San Mateo, California (US), db4objects, Inc. is expanding the db4o business based on four years of intense product development and early customer adoption.
Christof Wittig has assumed the role of CEO and President. Christof is an accomplished entrepreneur who has successfully started and built another software company as CEO from 1993-2002.
Carl Rosenberger will now focus as Chief Software Architect on product management and maintaining the unparalleled level of product and support quality in the light of db4o's rapid growth.
Mark Leslie has assumed the role of the Chairman. Mark is the founder, former CEO and Chairman of VERITAS, one of the largest software companies in the world. During his tenure as CEO, from 1990 to 2000, the company went from 10 to 5,500 employees and some $1.5Bn in sales.
On the Board, Mark is joined by Audrey MacLean as a Director, who has an unique track record for entrepreneurial success as a founder, CEO, investor, and board member.
The group of private investors that backs db4objects exclusively consists of founders and CEOs of some of the finest Silicon Valley software companies as well as of professors and fellows from the renowned Stanford University.
To ensure db4o's long-term financial health, Anne Dorman has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer. Anne brings nearly 20 years of experience as CFO in Silicon Valley ventures to db4objects.
Detailed biographies can be found under http://www.db4o.com/about/company/management/annedorman.aspx.
DB4O VERSION 3.0 HAS BEEN RELEASED AND IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR FREE EVALUATION DOWNLOAD
With four years of development, more than 100,000 downloads and close to 100 commercial customers, db4o has been more than validated as a stable and beneficial product platform for your application.
Now, db4o's version 3.0 fulfills even more needs of our customers. Indexed fields, for instance, dramatically increase the performance of simple queries. Also, built-in database-aware collections make the use of collections even easier and faster than before. For a compete list of product changes please go to http://www.db4o.com/db4o/changelog.html.
The only item we have not delivered as planned is improved documentation. In the light of the open source release we have changed our plans and are now going to ship the appropriate documentation together with our open source release in November. This release will offer little in the way of significant new functionality compared to version 3.0, but offers significant benefit as a publicly available open source database platform for our customers' applications, as well as improved documentation. It will be named version 4.0.
Version 3.0 is now available for free evaluation download from our Website.
INTRODUCING A NEW, FIXED-PRICE STRUCTURE FOR RUNTIMES
We are ready to introduce a fixed list price for our db4o Runtimes (dRT). db4o's policy going forward is to require a runtime license for every CPU on which your applications and db4o are installed. In consequence, we now charge one-time fees for every runtime instead of recurring charges per site.
The runtime list price is US$ 9.00 for purchased volumes of 10,000 and more. We grant huge volume discounts, such that runtime prices can fall as low as US$ 1.00 or less. On the flip side, customers with low volumes can expect significant premiums on this unit price.
Our volume discounts and our low base unit price reflect our commitment to the embedded market.
Furthermore, we offer to "mirror" your revenue streams to make you more competitive and fully vary your db4o cost of goods sold. Therefore we invite you to individually structure your purchasing agreement with us.
To receive your individualized offer please use our Web form http://www.db4o.com/commercial/purchase/ or send an email to sales@db4o.com.
SUPPORT OFFERINGS FOR COMMERCIAL PRODUCT DEVELOPERS ARE UPGRADED WHILE COMMUNITY-BASED SUPPORT WILL BECOME FREE OF CHARGE
Parallel to the introduction of our dual licensing model, db4o will now offer two tiers of support: the professional db4o Developer Network (dDN) and free community support. Support enhancements for our commercial dDN customers will be introduced gradually until the end of 2004.
The dDN membership brings significant benefits to commercial customers, including:
- Direct, e-mail bound 24/7 support in addition to our newsgroups. With a case logging and tracking portal we can guarantee priority and secure 24-hour response times, and often much less.
- Premium developer resources such as access to our Concurrent Versions System (CVS), to all nightly builds that passed our QA and to milestone builds between releases, e.g. for a fast bug fix or simple product enhancements to keep your development rolling.
- An unlimited number of non-GPL db4o developer licenses for your organization.
- The membership retains any individual runtime price agreement to ensure price stability as long as wanted by the customer.
Each dDN member subscription costs US$ 1,200 per year. To enjoy the benefits of the dDN, an organization needs to maintain at least one membership. If support requests and access to resources cannot be pooled internally, additional members can register.
The community support tier will consist solely of db4o's acclaimed newsgroup, but will become free of charge. In the long run, we expect the community to widely support itself and therefore cannot guarantee response times.
Current customer contracts will migrate as follows: We are currently contacting "db4o Corporate" customers to transition to dDN memberships, at the latest prior to expiration of the old agreement. The former "db4o Personal" contracts ($100) will be replaced by our free community offerings (GPL version, community-based newsgroup support) and not renewed upon expiration.
WE APPRECIATE YOUR FEEDBACK - mailto:newsletter@db4o.com
Please write us to let us know what you are thinking, and how we can help you. And please don't forget to share your db4o success stories with us!
CONTACT US:
db4objects, Inc.
1900 S Norfolk Street, Suite 350
San Mateo, CA 94403 (USA)
Phone +1 (650) 577-2340
Fax +1 (650) 577-2341
www.db4o.com
sales@db4o.com
Read along our community newsgroup or register to subscribe.
Back to Newsletter Archive