Slashdot Mirror
IBM Invests In MySQL/Oracle Competitor
stoolpigeon writes "IBM has made a move to support open source RDBMS PostgreSQL by investing in EnterpriseDB, a company that supports PostgreSQL as well as selling their own proprietary extensions to the database product. IBM participated in a $10 million funding round, though the article doesn't say how much they invested. In the past EnterpriseDB has primarily advertised itself as an Oracle competitor, though the article says, 'Derek Rodner, EnterpriseDB's director of product strategy, explained that Postgres Plus 8.3 also adds in new application quick starts which are supposed to help with installation issues. They will also help in EnterpriseDB's battle against MySQL for open source database supremacy.'"
Question: how do you properly pronounce "PostgreSQL"?
Because DB2 isn't really a competitor. It's not really a bad database, but I think only three people in the world is running it. ...my wife being one.
Joke you not.
I asked my local IBM sales representive since they now sell PostgreSQL, and he gave the pronunciation in the subject line.
It is true that the interface libraries are also covered by the GPL. But this can be gotten around easily enough by writing your own interface libraries, or having a GPLed thunk which speaks a proprietary protocol to your proprietary application and then uses the MySQL GPLed interface layer to talk to MySQL.
Wow, freedom sure sounds complicated.
In other words, "The GPL of MySQL is awesomer because, with a lot of work, you can violate its intent without violating the license!"
That's okay. He wanted a tool similar to access....