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Gov't GSA Office goes MySQL
comforteagle writes "MySQL has won a five year contract with the US General Services Administration office putting it in yet another government office on top of NASA, the Dept. of Def., Los Alamos National Labs & the Census Bureau. This additional win allows around 70 Government customers to purchase and deploy MySQL."
Support is one thing. You ought to pay for good support. But paying for the software itself? If your sister was a prostitute, surely you'd get a family discount.
What exactly are they paying for?
"MySQL has won a five year contract with the US General Services Administration office..."
...did the US General Services Administration office win?
Honestly, who doesn't call it DoD? Even scientists do!
What stopped them from deploying MySQL before?
Wake up tomorrow and sell Perl/PHP contract to government.
GSA is not just another gov't office. Once you are on the GSA Schedule, then many other government offices and agencies can simply buy your product without any additional paperwork. This means that the on-ramp to MySQL just got *much* easier for many groups in the U.S. govenment.
To quote: "With the GSA contract, GS-35F-0131R Schedule 70, government customers will be able to purchase and deploy MySQL through Carahsoft Technology Corp. The GSA schedule is effective Dec. 20, 2005 through Nov. 19, 2009."
See the magic words "GSA Schedule?" This is a Very Good Thing(tm).
This is certainly useful, in that it makes the product available to Federal users at a known (and, since it's on a GSA schedule, typically better-than-average) price. But when a reseller negotiates to be the GSA dealer for an item, that's all they've accomplished. That's NOT the same as actually talking an agency into using the product. We also want to be careful not to draw the wrong conclusions. When they say that NASA is using it, that means it's one more tool in NASA's toolbox. Some people might get the impression that they're using in lieu of other DB engines, rather than along side of such.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Continued blind use of the stinking hot heap of dogshit called "MySQL" is bound to bite the FOSS cause in the ass someday. When are the idiots gonna move uptown?
Choosing to go with a database that doesn't support foreign keys.
-- "I can't tell the future, I just work there." -- The Doctor
MySql wins a contract! lets post a story on slashdot! Why not post a story on why MySql is such a steaming pile of dog shit and how anybody in their right mind would use PostGRESQL instead?
Top 10 Reasons To Procrastinate
10.
suck the sweet nectar out of my massive fuck stick you son of bitch whore!!
Yes, why doncha you cocklesuckling fecal sucker??
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/innodb-fore ign-key-constraints.html
I've seen mysql die on countless websites. I shudder to think how it's going to handle something that's actually more important than someone's blog/forum/whatever.
Hey mods,
Parent is a *really* lame joke. Really lame.
At first I thought it was an anti-MySQL troll, but it's not. Read the subject line.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
I can't wait until even more government web portals are dependent on MySQL so that their sheer incompetence can be even more apparent. Nothing like waiting 4 hours for the BBB's website to become available because their MySQL box was hosed.
Are you German? Like, er, whoooooosh or something.
I love you. No. Really. I love you, man.
"The federal government will spend in excess of $400 billion with contractors this year and over $100 billion is expected to be spent with small businesses. Now business people from all over the U.S. can learn first hand from the experts how to capitalize on these business opportunities with federal government agencies without leaving their own offices"
Sounds good to me.
Do we really need to continue to see this tedious "news" about every mundane adoption of every mundane piece of software (so long as it's open source)? Some people are using MySQL. We get it. Some more people are using Linux. We get that too. This isn't news. Not even for nerds.
this is the U.S. Gov. we are talking about they dont know how to do anything. So they will NEED all the tech suport they can get and even then someone will use a user name / password of me and pass 1234567 and a cracker will walk right in .
"I don't pitch OpenSUSE Linux to my friends, i let Microsoft do it for me
MySQL is on the GSA schedule - but thousands upon thousands of products are available on the GSA schedule. Just being on the GSA schedule isn't particularly dramatic, though. And the headline (and even the summary) are quite a bit more breathless and quite a bit less accurate than the real story.
-h-
That's bullshit, and you know it. Under certain circumstances if I integrate MySQL into my application itself (not just connect to a MySQL server), if I install and run MySQL as an integrated par of my application AND I distribute my application outside my organization than and only than do I have obligations under whatever version of the GPL MySQL uses. The GSA probably isn't going to have this application marketed to the public (or anyone outside the Government). You know these types of rules go for commercial applications, too?
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Burried away in the licensing is a distinction between web servers on non windows playforms, and - everything else. PostgreSQL makes no such distinction, because it's always been and always will be free (as in freedom). Did you know you may need to pay for MySQL in a commerical $ENV? That's why projects like Asterisk shy away from it. They were quick to adopt Pg because it didn't pose that barrier.
After years of exhaustive, painstaking, and expensive study, our government has finally devised a method to buy something that's free.
I hope it at least comes with a $600 wrench or something...
This tagline is umop apisdn.
The government has a GSA? Even with such a homophobic President? And they're not using a Microsoft product? I think hell's about to freeze over.
________________________________________________
suwain_2
Obviously you have never worked for the government, nor have any clue at all about how they manage their networks, nor what kind of password/userID systems they use. C;early you are an idiot.
Jim Winstead will be speaking at SCALE 4x. He will cover the new features in MySQL 5.0 and 5.1. You can get a discount on a full access pass using the promo code "NEWSP" or a free expo floor pass using "FREE".
1. Sell a free product to the U.S. Government for huge sums of money.
2. ???
3. Profit!
Look buddy, I don't give a damn who uses MySQL. MySQL basically wrote a big "fuck you" to all the users before the license change. Wasn't real nice of the MySQL AB to make such a decision. Even then! They place a complicated page on the licensing stating MySQL is GPL, however! they try to use some type of licensing BS saying if you use mysql on a deployed platform, you must pay fees. This is *not* how the GPL works. MySQL is *not* free software since the license change. I should be able to use a (for example) pure mysql ruby based client to access MySQL server without MySQL AB jumping down my throat. Its *perfectly* legal and *does* *not* break GPL if you use a per say.. proprietary library to connect to it when you are just trying to use the friggen library. Even then! Because I'm using a ruby library, the definition of "linking" or "using" a library doesn't exactlty fall in to a catagory of how ruby uses code(even other scripting languages for the matter, which use a pure *language here* solution).
Any comments? Because even when you start asking these type of license questions, you get flamed by everyone just because you've found a loop in their licensing scheme.
Troll Tech has basically the same "business model". I think it's a worrisome trend.
As for NASA, I know they're actually using Mandriva Linux (no, not just a few PCs). They probably are actually using MySQL as well. But like you say, maybe not exclusively.
First of all, it can be important to permit linking and distribution of open source software to proprietary software, for example as a means of driving a proprietary standard out of the market. The GNU project itself has released many libraries in a form that permits proprietary, closed source software to use them that way because they know it's important.
Second, if there is a single commercial entity in control of the development of a piece of open source software, that entity will pursue its own ends with the development of the software. For example, they'll choose which features to include and support instead of being end user driven.
I think Troll Tech and MySQL are both doing more harm than good for free software and open source software because they are using open source merely as tool to increase their proprietary business. That's the kind of abuse of the open source and free software models that we really have to watch out for and defend against.
Eager to serve the United States instead of letting some power-hungry turbonerds cause the BSOD that vaporizes the world (or corporate rivals), the Government once again has expunged the totolitarian empire from those who would attempt to undermind the national infrastructure or those nutjobs who think they are helping break down that enitity.
The good news is that we won't have to worry about anyone with an XBOX360 playing TNW with NORAD's BURGR supercomputer.
"The only winning move is not to play." --WOPR from Wargames
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
HOW THE FUCK are they going to use it with NO FOREIGN KEY constraints and NO SUBQUERIES! If I ever meet them, I WILL KICK THEIR ASS!!
As well, let's keep in mind that publicly releasing the source is dependent on the public availability of the app itself. Apps developed for in-house use are what we are talking about here with the original question. License fees and code access are not an issue with this type of use.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
So even the US government does not really care anymore for its own standards. I guess Oracle will feel relieved with their 'ISO SQL 92 minus datatypes and a few other essentials' product. It kind of makes the efforts of PostgreSQL and others toward ISO SQL:2003 (hint: each ISO SQL standard cancels the former one) futile.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
Ever since the MySQL installer required a root password and disabled root connections outside localhost by default, while telling you that in clear language during the install process, it has been more credible as a simple installable RDBMS than some of the competition. FileMaker is another example of a database (of a sort, though) which makes sensible install defaults and then allows progressive expansion of capability without overwhelming the user with poorly documented options, but it is not as install-friendly.
I know it is fashionable for "real" computer scientists and DBAs to sneer at MySQL. But that's actually a sign of insecurity. Real mechanics don't sneer at zinc plated steel bolts because 316 is available: they just don't use zinc plate under salt spray conditions.
Pining for the fjords
Both Steve Ballmer and Larry Elison were seen throwing chairs and screaming, "We are a going to fucking bury the DoD, we did it before and we will do it again".
The DoD was heard mumbling something along the lines of "you and what army" and went back to keeping democracy save for billionares everywhere.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Geez. Tough crowd. I thought it was the funniest comment I've seen on /. all week.
;)
I guess you must be a MySQL user, and/or an American, right?
Is this the first time this has happened, though? A quick look at the GSA Advantage site yields at least one or two results for MySQL database license vendors. Besides which, I don't see any MySQL products on the GSA Schedule mentioned in the article, either. To be fair, it can take some time to update GSA's information, but it may be better for these folks to make public announcements after the t's have been crossed. Still, this is a positive step in the right direction for greater use and support of MySQL in the US federal government.
It's just like our government to pick a 3rd rate piece of crap database. The shit is going to hit the fan when 1) the gov fucks up the implementation or b) MySQL fails miserably. Gee thanks. This is oging to set the Linux crowd back 5 years.
This morning, the NYTimes reports the GSA's website for contract bidding has been shut down due serious security flaws.
c ure.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/technology/13se
"The security flaw, which could have permitted contractor fraud, was reported to the agency's inspector general on Dec. 22, but almost three weeks passed before the system was taken offline Wednesday afternoon. The General Services Administration is the federal agency responsible for procuring equipment and services, including computer security technology, making the lapse all the more striking. "This is the government entity responsible for letting contracts for security," said Mark Rasch, chief security counsel for Solutionary, a security firm. "Clearly the people who log in would know about security.""
Being on the GSA doesn't mean you sold anything, it just means you're on a list of vendors that it's easy for government agencies to buy from.
I've seen a LOT of database installations in government, and in MySQL's market it's almost all MSSQL and Oracle. They may get a few buys, but so far those in the goverment I have seen running MySQL weren't the type to pay for support.
Next time you want to post a little dig like that, do it anonymously - I don't want everybody thinking Debian maintainers are all ignorant idiots who flame things they've clearly never used.
MySQL has had foreign keys for quite some time now, as long as your tables are InnoDB.
I certainly hope they don't use MyISAM tables. I'd like to think that the government likes stability more than speed.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
GSA does not have to get involved in truly free applications.
MySQL now is on the GSA schedule which just means it is easier for government agencies to use them and they have a vetted and approved price sheet (Fair and reasonable is what uncle Sam calls it). Now they have to get out there and win some contracts before they will see any money.
Moderation +4
50% Funny
20% Troll
10% Flamebait
Apparently the percentages round down. Assuming every category has 6,6% rounding error, the difference between positive and negative mods is around 13%, indicating that a whopping 4*100/13=31 mods have been fighting over this joke. Guessing that the average story gets 100 mods, about 15% of the Slashdot crowd are aware that MySQL now handles foreign keys and get upset if someone believes otherwise.
I further postulate that less than 30% of Slashdot readers are that knowledgeable about MySQL, giving a minimum of 50% of MySQL afficionados who are humorless and quick to anger.
As a big fan of mysql this is something that I like to see happen, I personally love mysql, I think it does a great job. I know we use it at work in a 32 node cluster for our backend processes.
AFAIK it doesn't matter just use base 64 to convert it to ASCII then it can store it easily, like in php I think it is base64_encode().
Michael-m.co.uk - Home of Michael Mulqueen
The more MySQL sites, the brighter my future.