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MySQL Cofounder Says Oracle Should Sell Database To a Neutral 3d Party

Posted by timothy on from the richard-stallman-agrees dept.

alphadogg writes "Oracle should resolve antitrust concerns over its acquisition of Sun Microsystems by selling open-source database MySQL to a suitable third party, its cofounder and creator Michael 'Monty' Widenius said in a blog post on Monday. Oracle's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun is currently being held up by an investigation by the European Commission. The Commission's main concern seems to be MySQL, which was acquired by Sun in January 2008 for $1 billion. A takeover by the world's leading proprietary database company of the world's leading open source database company compels the regulator to closely examine the effects on the European market, according to remarks made by Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes last month. The key objective by Widenius is to find a home outside Oracle for MySQL, where the database can be developed and compete with existing products, including Oracle's, according to Florian Mueller, a former MySQL shareholder who is currently working with Monty Program AB on this matter." Richard Stallman agrees.

18 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. 3D? by clone53421 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, those 2D parties are shallow and make for thin plots.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  2. Your input has been noted by e2d2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll take "Things you should have thought about before selling to Sun" for 1000 Alex

    1. Re:Your input has been noted by icebike · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Exactly.

      He took the money.

      It had always been quasi open-source, and free to use, and he sold it to Sun. Now when it is acquired by a company who's only purpose for buying Sun was to kill this product and eat its heart he gets religion?

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    2. Re:Your input has been noted by VGPowerlord · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One of their purposes, not the only purpose. Oracle also wanted to get their grubby mitts on Java.

      Actually... with SPARC; Solaris; Java; Oracle 11g; and Oracle Weblogic Suite 11g, Oracle can now control their entire App Server from top to bottom.

      --
      GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  3. Maybe I'm missing something.. by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    MySQL is open source. Why is there a big argument about who controls it? If whoever is controlling it goes in a direction that people don't like, don't you just fork it? If people really are worried about the future of MySQL, shouldn't there already be a fork?

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    1. Re:Maybe I'm missing something.. by indraneil · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There is already a fork that is being worked upon by Monty (who was the founder of MySQL) I suspect the real contention is over the brand MySQL (which has significant mind-share) which was transferred to SUN and will now go to Oracle.
      A lot of medium sized companies use MySQL today and have support contracts with who-so-ever owns the brand itself. They I guess are the ones who are worried - choosing another database is often not an option.

    2. Re:Maybe I'm missing something.. by Nadaka · · Score: 4, Informative

      The letter by RMS addresses that question. That being that the commercially licensed version of MySQL funded suns continued development of the GPL'ed MySQL, and oracle would have a conflict of interest in continuing to develop and license a low cost alternative to its high priced core product.

    3. Re:Maybe I'm missing something.. by asdf7890 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or move over to another F/OSS database. Postgres has outdone mysql for "enterprise" features for many years (anyone else remember mysql people telling you that transactions were something that should be handled outside the database?) with the exception of replication support, and sqlite reportedly outperforms it in its traditional market (few writes but many selects over simple but potentially large structures). There are other options out there. A fork would face the same problem these other options have: mysql, the "official" version where-ever that lives these days, has a large amount of market inertia.

      (I'm not trying to grind an anti-mysql axe here, though I do prefer the other options myself depending on circumstances, just pointing out that a fork would only be any good to the market if enough people use it and getting that elusive "enough people" market share might not be easy)

  4. Bring on the hate by geekmansworld · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Okay, here goes... Maybe they should sell it to Apple?

    Yes, hate me, throw things at me. But Apple DOES love MySQL, it's an essential part of OS X Server. Unlike Oracle, IBM and Microsoft, Apple doesn't own an existing database product. Also keep in mind that MySQL the commercial product is not necessarily synonymous to MySQL the open-source project.

    Unfortunately, MySQL uses the GPL, whereas Apple has always preferred to open-source under the Apache license.

    1. Re:Bring on the hate by stanleypane · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're sort of arguing my point for me and trying to disagree at the same time.

      I think the *person* that lets that kind of stuff happen is to blame -- not the tool. It sounds like an awful lot of people here are bashing Filemaker because it isn't being used for it's intended purpose. I'm merely making the point that it's the idiot trying to use a hammer to bust up pavement when a jackhammer is more suited to the job.

      If you're letting your superiors get away with driving the choice behind inferior tools for a given job, well... can you really blame the tool? Maybe the person in charge of development isn't making their case properly or management is way out of line. But I don't think the tool is to blame in those scenarios.

  5. Transactions by fartrader · · Score: 4, Funny

    So its true, MySQL still doesn't support Transaction rollbacks.

  6. Big business kills open source... by Kate6 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This makes me think of nVidia's purchase of 3dfx. 3dfx (makers of the famous Voodoo series of video cards) were very friendly to the open source community... They played a very pivotal role in the realm of 3D rendering on Linux when it was still in its infancy, contributing significantly to OpenGL. Then nVidia bought them and discontinued its entire product line... And something like 6 months later it was announced that nVidia won the contract to make the graphics chips on the original Microsoft X-Box. Coincidence?

    MySQL, by virtue of being an open source product available in a "community" version for free, has become a central part of the business model of countless small businesses. And it's just fallen into the ownership of its biggest closed-source, for-pay competitor. This could potentially have ramifications for the global economy as a whole. Very scary.

  7. MySQL has been accepted because Oracle owns it by shoppa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On several occasions I've been able to convince customers that MySQL was good enough but only because Oracle owned it:

    Here's an app, I'm using MySQL
    You can't use MySQL, we're an Oracle shop
    Oracle owns MySQL
    Well, then, that's OK then

  8. Is Monte only looking out for himself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    disclaimer: I work for Sun and know nothing about mysql...

    Here's what I don't get, Monte and company sell mysql to Sun for 1 billion dollars.
    I assume Monte got a decent portion of that.. I also assume that Monte had to
    sign a no compete agreement for that sum of money.

    I'm sure Sun would be more that happy to sell back mysql if
    the original owners would like to give the $1 billion back.. I'm
    guessing they wouldn't.

    I would bet Monte wouldn't even give his portion back. Could
    this be Monte trying to keep the money he got and try to get
    out of a non compete agreement? (if he did indeed sign one).

    Yes, I'm bitter... ;-) As the EU holds this up longer, more people
    @ Sun will lose jobs over political crap. If Oracle was based out
    of the EU this wouldn't have happened. I'm willing to wager if SAP
    wasn't based out of the EU, this wouldn't be delayed either...

  9. Re:Like Yogi Berra says by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I like better, "So, this MySQL programmer walks into a bar, goes up to two tables and asks 'Excuse me, may I join you?'"

    Saw it in someone's sig here.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  10. Re:wow by viralMeme · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Someone paid $1 BILLION for a software company that made maybe a few million in revenue a year, and who already distribute most of the source code for their main product? Why?"

    To slowly dilute its market share and ultimately mop up MySQLs customer base ..

  11. Speaking of tables by ClosedSource · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everybody leaves the Ark and Moses addresses the animals "Go forth and multiply".

    So all the animals go into the forest, but Moses notices two snakes that haven't moved.

    "Why don't you go and multiply?", He asks.

    One of the snakes answers "We can't, we're Adders!".

    So Moses and his sons chop down one of the trees and form it into a rough-hewn table.

    He addresses the snakes and says "Here is your log table, now go forth and multiply".

    1. Re:Speaking of tables by LordKronos · · Score: 5, Funny

      Moses had an Ark, too?