In 2001 when IBM acquired Universe and Unidata when it bought Informix, I thought about how we could differentiate ourselves with a unique moniker. Since both of the databases began with a “U” it was fairly easy to see that U2 was a way to tie the databases under an easy to remember name. I was an Informix/Ardent/Unidata VAR and we need a new name.
A problem arose, however, with this slightly popular band from Dublin, Ireland called U2. Hype, the band, as they were originally known settled on the name U2 in 1978 and they signed shortly there after with CBS Records and came out with debut album called U2:3. So how could we use that name I asked myself?
Oh, but if we used part of the U2 moniker in our name we would be part of Unidata and Universe without a lot of effort, so we thought. Our company officially changed it name in 2004 officially to U2logic, Inc. Around 2006 IBM adopted the “U2” name as well in their branding effort and on their web sites.
U2logic need name recognition and by end of 2006 I came up with idea to create a full screen editor. One of our programmers wanted based on Microsoft’s Visual Studio. I, however, had been to an Eclipse demo that IBM gave on Rational a company they has just acquired. I found the Eclipse platform amazing in it depth and the commitment that IBM gave the open source community in programming support was unsurpassed.
U2 editor was born in November 2006. U2 editor would be renamed to XLr8Editor and was given away free to our U2 community. Our on the fly marketing effort did work. U2logic, the company, is known around the world for the U2 editor we gave away free for 2 ½ years. Over 700 users registered to use the XLr8Editor and we were very thankful for that tacit approval.
U2 database now has one of the premier tool sets in the world. The U2 database is no longer third class when it comes to tool sets for our programmers and users. U2logic has not sit still and continues to improve and extend the XLr8Editor. I should note as well that IBM now supports Eclipse based tools as well for the U2 databases.
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