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MySQL Quietly Drops Support For Debian Linux [UPDATED]
volts writes "MySQL quietly deprecated support for most Linux distributions on October 16, when its 'MySQL Network' support plan was replaced by 'MySQL Enterprise.' MySQL now supports only two Linux distributions — Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. We learned of this when MySQL declined to sell us support for some new Debian-based servers. Our sales rep 'found out from engineering that the current Enterprise offering is no longer supported on Debian OS.' We were told that 'Generic Linux' in MySQL's list of supported platforms means 'generic versions of the implementations listed above'; not support for Linux in general." Update: 12/13 20:52 GMT by J : MySQL AB's Director of Architecture (and former Slash programmer) Brian Aker corrects an apparent miscommunication in a blog post: "we are just starting to roll out [Enterprise] binaries... We don't build binaries for Debian in part because the Debian community does a good job themselves... If you call MySQL and you have support we support you if you are running Debian (the same with Suse, RHEL, Fedora, Ubuntu and others)... someone in Sales was left with the wrong information"
How to commit corporate suicide if you're an OSS vendor:
1. Kill support for Linux
2. DieDieDie
http://www.realmeme.com/roller/page/realmeme/?ent
My interpretation? In the United States, Linux is being marginalized as a specialty niche server. I didn't include the worldwide graphs, but Linux appears to have only a slightly better future. Predictably, Vista is ramping up and gaining mindshare and buzz.
If you need a support contract for Linux, it's because you have A) incompetent system administrators or B) insufficient sys admin staff. Now that is not necessarily a BAD thing... "Incompetent" doesn't mean that you are an idiot, it just means you don't have the required level of skills needed to to what you are doing. Small businesses for example may not have the budget for a "Real" senior system administrator who has the skills / time to solve more difficult problems. But hey, everyone needs to start somewhere... You don't become a senior sys admin overnight.
This is a big "ditto" for MySQL. No point in buying a license unless you NEED that certain level of support, and dropping support for Debian won't mean a thing in the grand scheme of things. Most people that use Debian use Debian packages and not MySQL versions anyway. Debian has their own support channel, and who says that it's worse than what you get directly from MySQL?
Let this be a lesson regarding the GPL and the dual-licensing trap some companies set up, such as MySQL. What we see is the unfolding of another development of the loophole that the GPL license creates.
It just proves there is no dual-licensing choice. This is effectively a proprietary licensing scheme (or scam). It's just another form of making the customer fall prey to the vendor. Now we see yet another facet of this loophole: the company ties support to vendors that charge per-seat licenses. A perfect scheme, a +/+ game for the vendors, both of the software and the OS. You loose, sucker.
The BSD license does not have this loophole, and leverages the playing field for everyone. You want to "close" the BSD solution, and package it as a proprietary solution? Do it. You want it as free software? It's there. The GPL, on the other hand, by a flaw in design is used for the type of maneuvering we see in this case.
Is it any wonder Google has chosen non-GPL licenses for a lot of their released open-source code?
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts