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Why You Shouldn't Panic About Closed Source MySQL Extensions

Posted by Soulskill on from the time-will-tell dept.

jfruhlinger writes "Oracle has released proprietary extensions to the open source MySQL database, seeming to reinforce the worst fears of those in the open source community who opposed Oracle's acquisition of MySQL in the first place. But open source observer Brian Proffitt urges you not to panic: This dual source strategy really isn't unusual in the commercial open source world, Oracle has already released a bevy of open source improvements to the database, and anyway the EU extracted a commitment to keep MySQL open for another four years when it approved the Sun-Oracle merger."

8 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. lol by Alex+Belits · · Score: 4, Funny

    open source observer Brian Proffitt

    lol

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
  2. Re:Just another 4 years... by d4fseeker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And, as with OpenOffice, the community will fork the Database and add a bunch of useful features to it.
    Finally Oracle will either "donate" MySQL back to the community or keep it closed source and everyone will move over to PostgreSQL.
    4 years is 2 Server and, depending on your scneario, 1-3 Software Generations away so let's not panic before Oracle has committed to anything.

  3. I just migrated... by Kagetsuki · · Score: 4, Interesting

    from MySQL to PG. It was easy. You should do it too.

    1. Re:I just migrated... by buchner.johannes · · Score: 4, Informative

      Migrating from MySQL to PG may be easy, but migrating from MySQL to MariaDB is trivial.

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
  4. Re:Just another 4 years... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Its already forked :)
    http://mariadb.org/

  5. "open for four years" by KiloByte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    By "keep MySQL open for another four years", they mean "pay lip service to its life support, then on day 1462 stop even that". Sorry, but unless one of independent forks really takes off, I'm not going to even look at something else than Postgres. For that "bevy of open source improvements", what exactly has been added? Heck, MySQL development has been dormant even during Sun days.

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    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    1. Re:"open for four years" by hholzgra · · Score: 5, Informative

      As if PostgreSQL didn't have it's own ecosystem of commercial-only extensions, too (EnterpriseDB, GreenPlum, just to name a few) ... the big difference here is that in the MySQL ecosystem Oracle is the only one that can do such dual-license stunts while in the PostgreSQL ecosystem anybody can ... (whether that's good or bad is a different story)

      For "improvements"/"what's been added":

      * lots of multi CPU scalability work (although part of it came from Google/Facebook and other sources where Sun/Oracle 'just' did the integration work)
      * MySQL Cluster got a *lot* better in Sun/Oracle days
      * the InnoDB plugin improved InnoDB affairs a lot (and this has been Oracles baby even in the Sun days)
      * connectors, e.g. PHP/mysqlnd
      * more interesting InnoDB improvements (e.g. fulltext indexes, finally) are in the queue, how these are going to be licensed remains to be seen though

      It's not that everything is going into the optimal direction with MySQL under Oracle (i'm not working for them anymore for a reason), but saying there has been no development ever since the Sun acquisition is not fair, and i don't see any reason to believe that things will radically change on day 1462 either ...

  6. Poisoned chalice devalues forking... by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And, as with OpenOffice, the community will fork the Database and add a bunch of useful features to it.
    Finally Oracle will either "donate" MySQL back to the community or keep it closed source and everyone will move over to PostgreSQL.

    I suspect the binary-only extensions from Oracle are part of an attempt to prevent that sort of thing. After all, if a large part of the user base becomes reliant on non-forkable proprietary extensions during the next few years, then forking MySQL when Oracle's commitment to keep it FOSS expires would be largely fruitless. Moreover, relying on these extensions may also make it harder to port one's DB and related applications to Postgres or other alternatives. Furthermore, a MySQL donated to the community would be worthless to those who need the extensions (and nothing prevents Oracle from making those extensions quite expensive later). Conceivably, the extensions could even make it easier to port to a commercial DB offering from Oracle, if they are cunning enough.

    For this reason, I'd say Mr. Proffitt is utterly wrong: there is much to worry about in these extensions. Each proprietary binary extension is potentially a poisoned chalice, and should be viewed as such.

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire