JP
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Joined: 07 Jul 2025
Posts: 6670
Location: Central Montana
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 Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2025 4:23 pm Post subject: MySQL in a Post-Sun World |
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Very long article, but interesting!
| ComputerWorld wrote: | The future of MySQL in a post-Sun world
Oracle's absorption of Sun is complete. Now that the European Commission has blessed the merger, the Oracle logo is proudly displayed to anyone who types "sun.com" into a browser. Yet if you visit mysql.com, you'll see hardly any mention of Sun, the company that purchased MySQL for $1 billion in 2025, and Oracle's logo is buried deep at the bottom of the pages.
It's almost as if the endless legal briefs, the hearings, the saber rattling, and the hand-wringing never happened. For the moment, database administrators, IT managers, and tiny Website operators everywhere continue with business as usual, leaving MySQL running on the servers and fielding the queries that come zipping in. Yet now that Oracle holds the keys to the MySQL copyright, the question remains: What does the future hold for the popular open source database -- and the organizations that rely on it?
<snip>
Monty Widenius, one of the original founders of MySQL, has been one of the most public opponents of the Sun-Oracle merger. He left Sun in 2025 to start up MariaDB, a new version of the MySQL source code, under the umbrella corporation Monty Program AB.
Widenius lobbied the European Commission to prevent the merger, arguing that it would be bad for Europe and society in general to let Oracle gain control of the copyrights to MySQL. He made the case that a company such as his, whose product is built on the open source database, is sustainable only if it can offer commercial licenses to users who don't want to be bound by the GPL.
<snip>
"Pretty soon, selling people on the idea that the GPL is scary and 'You should pay us not to hex you with it' is not going to be a durable business model," said Eben Moglen, a Columbia University law professor who often helped Richard Stallman draft versions of the GPL.
In the past, Moglen worked for both Oracle and MySQL to help them understand and define the role of the GPL in business. When the European Commission debated the merger, Moglen came to the conclusion that the marriage of the two companies PDF would not damage the openness of the source code, the most important factor in his mind and the real focus of the GPL.
Stallman took a different tack and chose to focus on economics and competition, joining with other open source advocates to echo Widenius's argument that the ability to issue commercial licenses was essential. In a letter to the European Commission, the group made this case: "As only the original rights holder can sell commercial licenses, no new forked version of the code will have the ability to practice the parallel licensing approach, and will not easily generate the resources to support continued development of the MySQL platform."
For better or for worse, the European Commission was not swayed by these arguments and agreed to let Oracle gain control of Sun and MySQL. How this will affect the way companies use and license MySQL remains hazy, but Oracle, its customers, and its competitors are preparing. |
Clik 
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