Note: Marten Mickos responds to this editorial below.
Sun Microsystems' purchase of the MySQL database system worried many open source programmers. MySQL is the back-end for a huge number of online applications, including Facebook and Slashdot. Sun made promises when they acquired MySQL. The two major promises were that they would continue to support MySQL in all of the environments it currently runs in and that it would remain open source.
The first promise, to maintain support on all platforms, is extremely important to the Linux community. MySQL is the essential back-end component to the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python) stack that drives the $21 billion dollar Linux server industry. But Information Week reported that Sun is already focusing on a SAMP stack. The S in SAMP stands for Solaris, Sun's Unix-like operating system. Sun's emphasis of Solaris over Linux is troublesome for many developers.
Even more troublesome, however, is Sun's breaking the promise to keep MySQL as open source. They recently announced that several new features in MySQL will be available to paying customers only, and that these features will be closed source — this in direct contrast to their earlier claims. What it does, in effect, is create a model where paying customers will be using code untested by the community at large. This is the exact opposite of the "many eyeballs" method of open source bug testing.
I understand Sun's need to recoup the one billion dollars they spent in acquiring MySQL, but they are moving in a dangerous direction. By emphasizing Solaris over Linux, and closing off new features to paying customers only, they are essentially saying that Linux doesn't matter. This is the wrong view for Sun to take if they want to maintain a strong user base. Open source proponents will quickly make the leap to other database back-ends, even if it demands major rewrites to their code, rather than work with a company that breaks its promises to the community. At the very least, Sun is courting a fork of the MySQL project. At worst, they are inviting the mass exodus of programmers from MySQL databases.
Article comments
1 - Arowolo
wow! thats not fear. i just moved from ms sql to mysql and then this...
2 - Kevin
Can you provide any evidence - e.g. links - to back up your claims about what Sun will do instead of keeping its promises? Aren't you a bit early here - assuming they'll break a promise before seeing the result of the merger?
Also, to call Solaris "Unix-like" is to call the Pacific ocean "sea-like". Remember that Linux is derived from "Linux-Is-Not-UniX", like GNU is "GNU is Not Unix", etc...
3 - dOgBOi
The Information Week article contains the information about Sun emphasizing the SAMP stack over the Linux stack. I did forget to link to the article regarding Sun's locking down features. Sorry about that.
4 - dOgBOi
And Kevin, why does your URL link to Jonathan Schwartz's (CEO of Sun Microsystems) blog? Are you a Sun employee?
5 - Marten Mickos
Thanks for writing about MySQL!
I would like to state that this is not a lie by Sun (or anyone else). The decision behind this was made before we got acquired by Sun, so this is not Sun's decision at all. Any criticism should be directed at me.
I know that our business model decisions may upset people, but at MySQL we also feel we have a responsibility to experiment with business models, because this industry is so new. We produce new GPL code every day, and we have GPLd previously closed source products (MySQL Cluster and Falcon). To do that we depend on a functioning revenue model.
Our commitment to keeping the MySQL server open source continues as before. What this specific issues is about is pluggable add-ons that users can choose to use or not to. The core server will function perfectly with or without them.
Hope this makes sense and feel free to contact me for further clarifications.
Marten
formerly CEO of MySQL AB, now SVP at Sun