The tech world is chatting about the Oracle acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Why? Because no one knows what will happen to open source applications like MySQL, OpenOffice, and Open Solaris.
All I have to say is, I am glad that I use PostgreSQL. My question is:
Will this be enough to put PostgreSQL in the lime light for Moodle preferences? I hope so...
http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?newsid=114615
I doubt anyone will kill MySQL, even if Oracle did want to (which I doubt).
It's open source, and the majority of people use it as their database. There will be maintainers for a long time...
It's open source, and the majority of people use it as their database. There will be maintainers for a long time...
I disagree.
The only reason Oracle gave out it's personal edition was to try and combat the growing MySQL base. There's statments floating around from Oracle from a while back that they wanted to try and combat the LAMP camp.
You will also remember that when Oracle made their press statement, that they didn't even say anything about MySQL - just Java and Solaris
Sun when they purchased MySQL said openly what they wanted to do with the product - they openly stated they would release enterprise solutions into the paid version first but that eventually, the opensource version would get those features too - Oracel has said nothing about MySQL at all - this is a big win for them.
Sun recognised early on that it is better to work with the opensource community than fight it. They also clearly stated that it would be stupid for them to take it all in-house because people would fork the project and the opensource community would take it in a new direction and they didn't want that. Sun had no compeating product so they were happy to work with MySQL.
Look at what Oracle tried when they took over RDB from Digital. First they attempted to do nothing and gave no direction. They then created tools to try and migrate people over to it's Oracle product. It was only when the staunch users of RDB on OpenVMS refused to move and threatened to go elsewhere that Oracle finally woke up and decided to work with the rdb camp. Even today, when you go to the Oracel main website you will not see any links to rdb - you have to dig deep to find it. Oracle will do the same to MySQL - give it little attention but just enough to make everyone think that they have not totally ditched it.
So - sorry - I don't share your belief that Oracle will happily keep MySQL alive - they will look at ways to exploit it's user base and attempt to find some way of charging for it and it will die a slow slow death IMO
The only reason Oracle gave out it's personal edition was to try and combat the growing MySQL base. There's statments floating around from Oracle from a while back that they wanted to try and combat the LAMP camp.
You will also remember that when Oracle made their press statement, that they didn't even say anything about MySQL - just Java and Solaris
Sun when they purchased MySQL said openly what they wanted to do with the product - they openly stated they would release enterprise solutions into the paid version first but that eventually, the opensource version would get those features too - Oracel has said nothing about MySQL at all - this is a big win for them.
Sun recognised early on that it is better to work with the opensource community than fight it. They also clearly stated that it would be stupid for them to take it all in-house because people would fork the project and the opensource community would take it in a new direction and they didn't want that. Sun had no compeating product so they were happy to work with MySQL.
Look at what Oracle tried when they took over RDB from Digital. First they attempted to do nothing and gave no direction. They then created tools to try and migrate people over to it's Oracle product. It was only when the staunch users of RDB on OpenVMS refused to move and threatened to go elsewhere that Oracle finally woke up and decided to work with the rdb camp. Even today, when you go to the Oracel main website you will not see any links to rdb - you have to dig deep to find it. Oracle will do the same to MySQL - give it little attention but just enough to make everyone think that they have not totally ditched it.
So - sorry - I don't share your belief that Oracle will happily keep MySQL alive - they will look at ways to exploit it's user base and attempt to find some way of charging for it and it will die a slow slow death IMO
It'll be very interesting to watch this play out over the next wee while.
I read this interesting article from Josh Berkus (one of the Postgres devs) recently:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/database-soup/innodb-and-the-compromise-of-dual-licensing-6068
Written in 2005, but I think it has some interesting points about commercially
"owned" opensource. I don't actually know much about the mysql development community, how many of them worked for Sun?
I read this interesting article from Josh Berkus (one of the Postgres devs) recently:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/database-soup/innodb-and-the-compromise-of-dual-licensing-6068
Written in 2005, but I think it has some interesting points about commercially
"owned" opensource. I don't actually know much about the mysql development community, how many of them worked for Sun?
I think Oracle will also consider that any attempt to kill MySQL will result in growing of PostgreSQL.
I agree with Ian.
Oracle is likely to follow the Microsoft model and try to leverage a strategic advantage to maximize profits especially considering the global recession. Since they own the product now there isn't anything the user community can do except reinvent the open source relational database which is inevitable.
Oracle is likely to follow the Microsoft model and try to leverage a strategic advantage to maximize profits especially considering the global recession. Since they own the product now there isn't anything the user community can do except reinvent the open source relational database which is inevitable.