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Ask MySQL's CEO About Running a Free Software Business

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the world's-most-popular-free-software-database dept.

There have been so many articles written about the perils, pitfalls, and possible rewards of running a business based on free or open source software that we can't possibly link to them all. Instead, let's ask MySQL CEO Mårten Mickos how to make money with a company based on free software, because he runs a company that is almost always touted as one of the world's greatest free software (business) successes. You may want to read some of these interviews with Mårten before you come up with your own questions in order to avoid duplication, but other than that suggestion and the usual Slashdot interview rules, ask whatever you like, however you like.

7 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Biggest Problem? by eldavojohn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In your eyes, what's the biggest problem with MySQL? More specifically, what leaves market share room for Oracle & your competitors? Do you even see yourself as having any competitors since your product is free?

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    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Biggest Problem? by CastrTroy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They still have competitors like PostgreSQL that are also free. MySQL currently has a huge following, and is "the" database offered by most shared hosting companies. What is MySQL doing to ensure that they stay in that position. As far as I've heard, PostgreSQL is a much better database, the only reason why MySQL is the DB used by webhosts is because many tools (phpBB and others) depend on MySQL to function properly.

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      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  2. Perception of low quality for 'free' by OakDragon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How do you fight the perception that MySQL is not suitable for 'the real world' because it is free?

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    Dark Reflection
  3. R&D Directions? by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In a market where people are just looking for stability, simplicity & scalability, where do you turn for innovation in your products? Is there a lot of research and development towards new features and completely new products in MySQL's community or do you aim primarily to do one thing well? How do you influence the direction of this research in such a large open source project? Do you attempt to add direction at all?

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    My work here is dung.
  4. Defects per KLOC by eldavojohn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Your website touts you as having the lowest defects per KLOC by up to 12 times the industry standard, what do you attribute as the leading factor to your success in this respect? Since cold cash is the traditional method, how do you incentivise code quality in an open source product?

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    My work here is dung.
  5. Achievements & Fallout by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In your five years as MySQL CEO, what has been your proudest moment? Do you find it difficult to lead a company based on a product that belongs to a community? Do you ever experience any fallout/backfire from running your company on such a business model?

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    My work here is dung.
  6. Roadmap Decisions by Gunfighter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When you plan your software product roadmaps, what feature requests do you pay more attention to? Enterprise customers want scalability, reliability, redundancy, and security; but some database programmers are looking for features such as solid transaction support, stored procedures, and more functions. How do you rank which feature requests get attention first?

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    -- Stu

    /. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.