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MySQL CEO Interview
someonewhois writes "MySQL's CEO, Marten Mickos, says 'Open source & MySQL will rise, legal foes will fall', in a bold prediction that legal issues will continue to be ignored as a threat towards open source, and that software patents will harm the industry (well, duh)."
He'd better watch it before Bill Gates makes him an offer he can't refuse, and he wakes up with a penguin head in his bed.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Not much here:
What do you think was the top story in the Linux and open source arena in 2004?
Marten Mickos:None of the legal attacks on open source or Linux have been successful. None of that stuff has gone anywhere. That's the biggest story.
On that subject, MySQL has come to the conclusion that software patents will ultimately be demonstrated to be harmful to the industry. So, we are sponsoring a campaign in the European Union today to educate politicians and decision makers on the negative impact of software patents.
Will harm *him*, but they'll help, for instance, Oracle.
Both are in "the industry". So to make blanket statements like harm "the industry" fall on deaf ears.
If you want to bitch about patents in a meaningful way, at least show how they do harm, by preventing competition by giving one company an unfair advantage.
Also, it's in my opinion that it's only the frivolous patents that harm the industry. It's not the patent system itself that's wrong, it's the abuses of it. "Security holes" that need patching.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Open source & MySQL will rise, legal foes will fall...
I thought MySQL IS open source!
*shudders*
But if open source advocates and creators spend all of their time in litigation, doesn't Open source suffer as a result?
Their creativeness is put on hold, and the money for litigation has to come from somewhere. They usually are not in it for the money, so where does it come from?
Corps with their deep pockets have an advantage; they can sit in a court room all day long, every day for years, dragging out the process and basically smothering out the open source comeptition.
On the plus side, I guess there will always be someone to pick up the fight!
If I wrote something witty, you would say I stole it from somewhere.
Postgre and Firebird are toys.
MySQL is like the playmobile activity center you put in an infants crib, so that one day when he sees a real database he won't be too scared of it.
Thats fine, when you are on the 'right' side of the suit..
Let him get hit with being the defendant on a few IP suits, and i bet he sings a different tune.. One of caution..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
As a GIS geek that wants a solution that costs less than $10,000,000.23, I'm hoping that MySQL improves their spatial extensions. Right now I play with PostgreSQL w/PostGIS until MySQL can implement more robust projections (how geography is "laid flat" on a map for those who don't know). From what I gather, and I admit being new to open-source GIS solutions, PostgreSQL w/PostGIS extensions stomps all over MySQL at the moment, but I think it would be in their interest to improve as they have a nice business model and GIS is taking off.
Here we have the CEO of a company saying, basically, that his company is going to do well this year.
And just for making that unremarkable statement, he makes the Slashdot homepage?
News flash! It's the CEO's job to promote the company. They all do that. Even Darl.
what department would that be exaclly?
~/.sig: No such file or directory
Given what I saw on last years 21C3 MySQL 4 will fall flat on its face if someone starts to test the security of this version of the product.
The sas thing is: I am not kidding. Don't use too long usernames on the SQL client-side which could be (by coincidence) the same location where your SAP-System is installed.
MySQL CEO: Open source & MySQL will rise, legal foes will fall By Jan Stafford 13 Jan 2005 | SearchEnterpriselInux.com 2004 was a portent of things to come for Linux in 2005, both because of what didn't happen (SCO Group's victory) and what did (the rise of open source software), according to Marten Mickos, CEO of Sweden-based MySQL AB. In this interview, he predicts how those events, which included the success of MySQL's database, will play out in 2005. What do you think was the top story in the Linux and open source arena in 2004? Marten Mickos:None of the legal attacks on open source or Linux have been successful. None of that stuff has gone anywhere. That's the biggest story. On that subject, MySQL has come to the conclusion that software patents will ultimately be demonstrated to be harmful to the industry. So, we are sponsoring a campaign in the European Union today to educate politicians and decision makers on the negative impact of software patents. What trends in 2004 will have important consequences in 2005? Mickos: Large software companies, like CA, began coming to open source more strongly than ever before. In 2004, the thought caught on that open source indeed is a smarter way of producing software. It is of higher quality at lower cost and that is sort of a no-brainer. The examples are there for all to see -- Apache, Sendmail, PHP, Linux, MySQL -- and they've reached maturity, all being at least 10 years old. Also, Linux [cemented its position] as the fastest growing operating system. There is growth in adoption of all of the versions. There are the conservative parts of the markets that are staying with the 2.4 kernel, but there are the new guys that are going with the 2.6. I think that the sign of a maturing product is when new versions aren't that shockingly different anymore. Why did MySQL make so much progress in the enterprise market in 2004? Mickos:We've been working with the enterprise market and getting ready for the enterprise market. So, in 2004, we wrapped up our services packages and built a consulting team. We came out with new versions, specifically 4.1. Now, we are getting ready for 5.0 next year. In terms of partners, we've established and are starting partnerships with strategic partners that are needed in the enterprise space. What will be the important trends in the Linux and open source space in 2005? Mickos: We will see increased growth, faster growth than before, in adoption of open source in the enterprise, not just for MySQL, but across the board. I think that JBoss will be experiencing a lot of growth. The new, slightly younger companies -- like SourceLabs and SpikeSource -- that are coming up will enjoy that growth. There are more enterprise customers who are ready to take the step because IBM, HP, CA and most of the other big companies are standing behind open source. What challenges do you see facing businesses that are going to start using more open source software in 2005? Read more on open source databases here MySQL exec: Open source to be New Year's resolution for many CA swings at Oracle, MySQL with Ingres Mickos: We deal a lot with enterprise customers, and we ask them what problems they foresee and what questions remain unanswered. Their No. 1 concern is training the staff. They are asking themselves whether they need to retrain people or whether they have the skills in-house already. The good news is that most corporations discover, when they ask around, that they have open source skills in-house. That is an important milestone for the open source movement. Many corporate IT people have used open source products at home or, sometimes secretly, in business projects. Of course, formal training may still be needed. That is the big hurdle that large organizations need to jump as they adopt more open source. What is ahead for MySQL in 2005? Mickos: We will come out with version 5.0, which is a very significant release for us. It will have many new features that customers have asked for, and will make MySQL even easier for large and small corporations to use.
MySQL Error 1040: Can't return sig, Too many connections!
Don't get complacent, Mr. Mickos. Don't you dare get complacent. Complacency is the state people get into just before some legal challenge arises out of nowhere and kicks them in the head. The only proper mindset to have with respect to legal issues is paranoia. You have to strategize for every possibility and then some.
The coolest voice ever.
And here I was expecting him to say "Hey, sell your shares, this company and this open source stuff is fucked." Well this is a relief.
That is a rather limited view. Seen that research indicates that softwarepatents actually hinder innovation, one could as well say that it is, at the end, NOT a good things for the economy *as a whole*.
When you have less innovation, ultimately your products and your businesses get behind, which will lead to a far bigger economical deficit then some IP lawyer could ever make the economy 'recuperate'.
On an individual level and short-time period, level, you will have people benefitting and people losing out when sw patents are allowed (or not). On the long run and for the economy as a whole, you will lose out if you create or maintain software patents.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
"Does he really care about the industry?"
Maybe he does, and maybe he doesn't, but that's not the actual point. Even if he would turn out to be a greedy bastard who wanted to monopolise the entire industry (as MS does), the question remains if sw patents are a good idea or not.
Good isn't good for this or that corporation in the short term, but for society in the long term. After all, a patent is a monopoly given by the state, and the state is (supposed to do) what's good for their citizens. Ultimately, in a democracy, *we* define the state. So the question boils down to: is it a good thing for the populace as a whole?
As we all know, monopolies are never a good thing, and the only reason why it is given, is because it is supposed to stimulate further innovation. at least on sw patents enough studies have been done to indicate they don't do that at all, on the contrary.
Conclusion: it is NOT a good thing. (Even when a particular company might profit from it at a given time).
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Their dual license model is great, but I think they cloud a little the GPL licensing and commercial licensing:
:-)
If you distribute MySQL Software within your organization, you should purchase a commercial license.
GPL is not at all restrictive!! They mention this as being restrictive, basically they represent GPL as a less viable option for many companies than it really is.
Anyway, kudos for being a corporattion willing to tag itself GPL (even if otherwise it would have meant marketshare death)
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
"There's a fine line that needs to be walked when it comes to software patents. Either extreme will stunt growth."
Indeed, and that fine line is: allowing them.
"On the one extreme[...]"
sw patents are hopelessly borked. You can not patch the process up to be sure you only have high quality true software-innovations, and the whole idea of it is flawed in the first place, because software is akin to writing recipes, and it should be governed by copyright, not patents. and thirdly, patents are monopolies given by the state, because it is supposed to stimulate further innovation: all neutral research thusfar has indicated that it doesn't do that, on the contrary.
"On the other extreme[...]"
No, it won't. You seem to ignore the fact that, when software started with it's boom, there WERE NO sw patents. In fact, it can be reasonably argumented that it was just because they didn't existed at the time, that software knew such a high flight. Time and money isn't spend to produce new sw technologies; it is increasingly diverted to the legal departement of the companies. Companies that are flexible and can adapt will survive just fine without sw patents, rest assured.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Do you have any references to good reading material on how software patents hinder innovation? I don't know much about it and would like to read up on some of the arguments.. Specifically how do they hinder innovation?
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Enterprise this Enterprise that.
"We've been working with the enterprise market and getting ready for the enterprise market"
"We deal a lot with enterprise customers"
It's always nice to see ppl wanting to learn more.
Anyway, there have been numerous posts in the past to it, but I don't know the links at heart. I do seem to remember the FFII has a page with links to sw-research, as does nosoftwarepatents.com, I think.
Happy reading!
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Why do people insist on using MySQL when far better superior alternatives such as PostgreSQL exist?
If you're asking "what legal reason is there?", then the answer is because they decided in their infinite wisdom to GPL the client libraries, which is a more restrictive policy than any of the commercial DBs impose as far as I know.
If you meant "why on Earth would they do that?", then I have no answer. They had to invent a stupid "FOSS License Exception" (see the above link for details) to allow popular non-GPL projects like PHP to offer MySQL support, and have basically removed any chance of commercial software support.
In a nutshell, if you want to use a database in your non-GPL project (whether Free or proprietary) then MySQL is a poor choice. They've already added huge client library restrictions by moving from the LGPL to the GPL, and I don't see any reason to believe that they won't drop the "FOSS License Exception" kludge in the future. Note that I like the GPL - it's a good license and I support its goals - but this seems like a wholly inappropriate place to use it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
(reads again...)
Oh, never mind....
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
MySQL is so popular, that there are so many host that use it and don't offer PostgreSQL. They both are free, but PostgreSQL is better. Transactions, builtin programming language, GIS functions, extensibile types, etc.
LAMP might be a cool acronym, but Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP isn't the best. On an aside, embedding Perl in web pages might be better than the web page specific PHP.
Here is to a new acronym: LAMP = Linux + Apache + Mod_perl + PostgreSQL.
Happy Martin Luther King Day!
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
I'm wondering how does someone who is 'ceo' of something that is totally free make money. Service contracts? My host provides free service/consulting for MySQL (icdsoft.com). And besides, it ain't rocket science.
Parent was the funniest thing I've read on /. in a while!
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.