MySQL turns to the dark side

[Derek Neighbors]

Jerry Davis wrote:

>Got this from slashdot today.
>
>MySQL and SCO Join Forces
>
>http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/04/1730225
>
>Guess I will be looking a lot more to Postgresql now.
>  
>
What do you mean "turns"?  MySQL AB the company has had roots in the
"middle earth" area for some time.  For those too young to remember
MySQL used to have a very odd license [0].  If I recall it basically
stated if you make money we better make money and I believe their
windows version was not free at all.  Of course, during this entire time
(1995-96 era) they touted themselves as Free Software and got many
people to buy into their database.  Luckily, most of those that were
duped into thinking they were getting something truly "free" started to
move to Postgres.  This in turn forced the hand of MySQL to move to the
GPL w/ ability to buy a commerical license.  The old dual license trick
(like Mozilla, et al).

I bring this up because you need only to look at someone's roots to
understand their motivations.  It is clear that Monty and friends have a
stronger money motivation than a community motivation as evidenced by
how they structured licensing in the early 1990's before they had a user
base.  The user base influenced them to change, but where are their hearts?

For the postgres comment.  If you are doing any real database work other
than simple webpage serving you should be investigating Postgres for
feature reasons alone. : )

--
Derek Neighbors
Integrum Technologies

[0] http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/mypl.html