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Oracle Bid to Acquire MySQL
i_frame writes "CNet is reporting on a recent Oracle bid for open-source database MySQL. They were unsuccessful." From the article: "'It all comes back to the question of cannibalizing an existing business,' O'Grady said. 'If you determine that to some extent it's inevitable, wouldn't you prefer that you do it, instead of your competitors?' O'Grady said Oracle could benefit from MySQL in the way that IBM has from its acquisition of Gluecode, a company that commercializes the open-source Geronimo Java application server software and competed with IBM's own proprietary WebSphere product."
...from these things since no one entity owns it. I'm running a Jabber server with PostgreSQL as the data store and it's been quite solid... good times.
The Army reading list
Open Source MySQL would only be available under the GPL right? Now how could commercial users use MySQL in such a situation, if they can't put their own code under the GPL?
Christof Wittig has written a very interesting paper on the MySQL business model and he did post some interesting comments recently:
http://www.people4objects.org/
I think it's a very good sign that MySQL feels strong enough to stay independant. It suggests that open source is stronger than Oracle.
"If Oracle wanted to be really nasty, they could start legally enforcing MySQL's interpretation of the GPL. i.e. If your software uses MySQL but isn't GPLed, Oracle could sue you for failing to keep up the licensing terms."
This is totaly FUD.
The GPL does not enforce "external" programs to fall under the GPL. It is perfectly legal for non GPL code to "USE" GPL code as longs as it does not link directly to the code or add any exsisting extensions to it.
If your software embeddeds a MySQL database then you have to purchase a commercial license. However, it is perfectly legal for anyone to use a mysql database without releasing any code under the GPL.
what?
There probably wouldn't be anything to patent. Since MySQL is open source, all the IP has been in the public eye for many years. This pretty much rules out the idea that any of it is patentable.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
As long as there's a semi-official version of MySQL that's kept up to date (just without the Real Database(TM) features), any fork would have a difficult time surviving. Plus they couldn't call it "MySQL" or Oracle would come down on them like wrath from heaven.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Why? You could take a public defender and beat Oracle every single time.
Public Defenders are for criminal cases. AFAIK, the court will not appoint one for a civil disagreement. There is also the massive expense for a company to find and prepare evidence for their defense. Since the GPL is hinged on very technical matters, Oracle could easy keep the case in the court for a LONG time and bleed a company dry trying to defend themselves. Worse yet, a judge may actually agree with Oracle due to difficulty in understanding the technical issues at hand. Which means that the case would be held up even more by appeals.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
These guys might disagree with your assessment of it being for "dinky" apps.
Yeah, though I am sure someone would've stepped up and done that if the sale had gone through.
As someone pointed out already, since it is under GLP. There is nothing Oracle could do about a fork. The software is open source, so a group could pick it up and continue developing for it. Much like StarOffice and OpenOffice. We use StarOffice here at work for some users. With my limited knowledge of both StarOffice and OpenOffice, I think I like OpenOffice better actually. I would assume that MySQL would head the same way, so Oracle couldn't exactly buy out the competition. Though, with them being a big company with money to throw around, I am sure they would try some legal stuff to lessen that kind of stuff.
Oh well, we don't have to worry about it, for now at least.
http://www.mysql.com/why-mysql/case-studies/
PokerRoom.com Powers High Transaction Online Poker System with MySQL and HP .... 12,000 players occupy the poker tables. Since each bet, each played hand and other data are recorded, the database often handles 2,000 transactions per second.
Los Alamos National Labs Relies on MySQL to Scale with 7 Terabytes of Data.
Lycos Europe Reduces TCO by 90% by Migrating to MySQL.
Lycos Europe migrated all company portal services to MySQL, displacing one of the leading proprietary databases in the market. Replacing their existing database solution with MySQL resulted in more than a 90% savings. Lycos Europe today has approximately 1 terabyte of data handled by 100 MySQL servers. At peak traffic up to 25,000 concurrent users are online and 1 Gb of data per second is delivered to users.
Cox Communications Powers Massive Data Warehouse with MySQL To maintain optimum performance and customer-service levels, Cox has developed a huge data warehousing application. At the heart of this business-critical system is a 2-billion row MySQL database.
etc.....
Actually, if you link your app against the mysql client librairy which is GPL, you are entitled to disclose the source... Hence the commercial license for people using MySQL with proprietary software.
While OSS alternatives do exist, migration is non-trivial. Particularly when you've been drinking the MySQL koolaid. My day job is a MySQL shop. Our code was written to run fast using MySQL, not an ACID database. Transactions were not available, and were not designed for. Rewritting all the code that does multi-table joins in code instead of in SQL (because that the only way to make MySQL fast) will take a lot of time.
The time it will take to migrate won't kill us, but it will cost us customers. Since we just started making a profit, it's a very big concern.
In my defense, nobody in the basement knew any better. MySQL is still a lot better than the flat binary files we were using. If I could rewrite, MySQL wouldn't be a consideration. But that's not a viable business option as long as MySQL is available.
ODBC?
from http://www.unixodbc.org/ --
"Also; ALL unixODBC development is and will be distributed under GPL or LGPL. The LGPL on libs will ensure that commercial solutions will be able to utilize unixODBC."
Emphasis mine.