Re: Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems - NYTimes.com

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Maris <maris.fogels () redplanet ca>
Date: April 20, 2009 12:51:26 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:  Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems -  
NYTimes.com

On 09-04-20 10:29 AM, David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> From: Stephen Fulton <sf () lists esoteric ca>
> Date: April 20, 2009 10:23:56 AM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Subject: Re: [IP] Oracle Agrees to Acquire Sun Microsystems -  
> NYTimes.com
> Dave,
> For IP if you wish.
> One of the Sun's assets is the open-source MySQL database software,  
> which is used by many, many Internet sites.  I am curious, and  
> somewhat concerned, about what Oracle intends to do with that  
> product now, as it does compete directly with Oracle.  There are  
> other options for sites which prefer or can only afford an open- 
> source platform rather than commercial products, but none so widely  
> used as MySQL.  These are uncertain times for a large number of  
> website operators and other users of MySQL.
> -- Stephen
> David Farber wrote:
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/technology/companies/21sun.html?hp
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dave,

I wouldn't worry too much about the future prospects of the MySQL  
community.

First, one of the original founders of MySQL, Monty Widenius, left Sun  
a little while ago to found his own company, Monty Program Ab.   
Monty's words are rather reassuring:

   The main reason for leaving was that I am not satisfied with the  
way the MySQL server has been developed, as can be seen on my previous  
blog post. In particular I would have like to see the server  
development to be moved to a true open development environment that  
would encourage outside participation and without any need of  
differentiation on the source code. Sun has been considering opening  
up the server development, but the pace has been too slow.

   ...

   Monty Program Ab will start working actively with the MySQL  
community to allow stable patches to the MySQL-5.1-Maria tree and  
create an active community around this tree. We will also do some  
restructuring of the MySQL code to make it simpler, faster and with  
fewer bugs.

   One shouldn't regard the MySQL-Maria tree as a fork but as a  
branch as we intend to pull in all changes from the official tree to  
the MySQL-Maria tree; Some of the changes will probably be reworked  
but we will do our best to ensure that for the end user they should  
look and feel the same.

(the rest may be read at http://monty-says.blogspot.com/2009/02/time-to-move-on.html)

If Oracle were to do anything negative to MySQL, or its community,  
then Monty or some other enterprising person from the MySQL community  
would probably pick up the ball.

Second, from what I've heard, Oracle has been pushing to move into  
Open Source Software for a while.  With this purchase they get a  
healthy Open Source community, a profitable product, and 60K monthly  
downloads by potential Oracle customers.

Also, from MySQL's perspective, their new owners are hard-core  
database experts, unlike Sun, which is a platform company.  Some  
interesting things could come of the union.

Something else in the Oracle press release caught my eye:

 "Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated  
system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work  
together so customers do not have to do it themselves."

To me, that almost sounds like a return to the mainframe: pay  
$500,000, sit down in front of a terminal, and it "just works".

First cloud computing, and now this.  They both share a common thread  
in the computing industry: as developments like Open Source Software  
drive the cost of infrastructure down, the industry is seeking to  
preserve value by locking that infrastructure up behind paid service  
terminals, either over the internet, courtesy Google, or in the  
corporation, courtesy Oracle.


--
Maris Fogels
maris.fogels () redplanet ca
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marisfogels




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