Michael King and BBSysco
Acquire Rights to Microshare Business Basic
Markham, Ontario –
August 3, 2007 - Michael King, president of Business
Basic Systems Corporation (BBSysco), announces that they have
acquired the rights to Microshare Business Basic and plan on
releasing a new version of the language as Open Source, under
both a GPL and Commercial license.
With this acquisition, BBSysco
is responding to the need of the Business Basic community to take
advantage of open source technology to quickly develop and deploy
applications while having the option to migrate to a commercial
license.
BBSysco’s Open
Source Provides Flexibility and Choice
Although Business Basic has been
around since the late 1970's, it has never been well known in the
software industry. This has lead to minimal exposure and market
acceptance for applications written in Business Basic. Even
though over the years, the applications written in Business Basic
have been used world wide in many key business sectors and by
many high-end application packages.
The goal of BBSysco is to change
all that by offering an open source Business Basic under a dual
licensing business model: GPL and Commercial. Offering an open
source product will broaden the base of developers that are
exposed to the capabilities and flexibility that Business Basic
offers in the creation of business applications. This will
increase the appeal of the language and the applications that are
written using Business Basic.
The introduction of this new
open source will mean that the Business Basic community will now
have more choices as to the type of software licensing model they
wish to use.
Open Source Business
Basic is Good News
Having a Business Basic within
the open source community is good for everyone. It means more
exposure to the language and more programmers knowledgeable and
capable of using the language.
A few of the benefits:
More exposure to the
language within the IS community
New programmers can learn
the language at no cost
Educational institutions
can provide training without paying license fees
Access to marketplaces that
demand open source product offerings
Guaranteed longevity of the
product and ongoing development
Open source community
developers quicken the pace of enhancements
Custom interfaces may be
integrated into the language
Open Source Business
Basic Coming Soon
Currently, BBSysco is working
through the source code acquired and preparing it for general
release. They anticipate the first version to be available by
mid-to-late fall 2007.
During this time frame, they
will be looking for dealer input on a number of core elements
within the language such as the default file separator, default
file information format, and other aspects of Business Basic that
vary between different dialects. Please visit their web site for
additional information.
About Michael King:
Michael King has been involved
in the Business Basic community for the last 20 years and has
been responsible for development of the language through various
product offerings, most notably ProvideX from Sage. His
involvement with this new company and its open source direction
will allow Business Basic to continue to grow and gain
recognition and market acceptance.
About Microshare Basic:
Microshare Basic was first
developed back in the late 1980's and was actively sold as a
multi-user Dos product. Later, a Xenix/Unix version was created.
Then, in the 1990's, it was released as a Windows product. The
language was compatible with most other dialects of Business
Basic complete with OS and terminal independence, multi-keyed
files, and a wide variety of functions and utility programs
designed for business applications. Its Window’s version
also included graphical controls, image/bitmap processing, MDI
document support, DAO for database access, a thin client terminal
interface, a grid control and much more.
