Firebird 2.00 Alpha 01

Firebird 2.00 Alpha 01
21 March 2005

The Firebird Project is pleased to announce the release today of the first Firebird 2.0 public Alpha kits for immediate download and testing.

This version of Firebird 2 is an alpha version, meant for field testing only and not for use in production.
All changes and new features are subject to further change and/or
withdrawal in subsequent alpha and beta releases, leading up to final
release. Do not assume that databases created by or upgraded to the on-disk
structure of this alpha will be upwardly compatible with subsequent test
builds/releases.

Bugs, problems, etc. can be posted to the Field Test bug tracker or
to the Firebird Development List.


This release contains a large number of new features, including
derived tables, support for Execute Block, increased table sizes,
new improved index code (the 252-byte index length limit is no longer
applicable), expression indices, numerous optimiser improvements,
enhanced security features, support for on-line incremental backups
along with numerous other improvements and bug fixes. Please read
the Release Notes for more details.


The following builds are currently available, with others to follow soon:
Win32

21-Mar-2005 Windows Installer for Superserver and Classic (3.0 Mb)

21-Mar-2005 Debug build of the above (5.0 Mb)
21-Mar-2005 Embedded Client/Server (zip file, 1.7 Mb)
21-Mar-2005 Debug build of the above (zip file, 3.6 Mb)
21-Mar-2005 Classic and Superserver debug build (zip file, 8.0 Mb)


Linux i686

20-Mar-2005 Linux Classic RPM Installer (2.9 Mb)
20-Mar-2005 Linux Classic, tarball with scripts (2.9 Mb)
20-Mar-2005 Linux Classic debug build, tarball with scripts (18.9 Mb)


Feedback, input and comments re this release will be appreciated, as they will help to speed up the cycle for the full Firebird 2.0 release.



Happy testing!

-- Firebird Project