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Open Source Weblog
Will Oracle launch Unbreakable MySQL?
January 29, 2007
I had an interesting an enjoyable meeting with Marten Mickos, MySQL’s chief executive officer this morning. As usual Marten was in good spirits, and as usual he had some interesting things to talk about.
Here are just two things of note: Oracle has suggested it will offer support for the MySQL code, undercutting the company, and Oracle is already distributing the open source database management system.
“They have hinted to us that they will,” said Mickos, indicating that the database giant is planning to repeat its October 2006 Unbreakable Linux plan, which saw it undercut Red Hat with enterprise Linux support.
Despite the competitive threat, Mickos is unmoved. “I hope they do that,” he said, noting that it would be seen as an endorsement of the open source database, and revealing that Oracle has already inadvertently endorsed the product.
“Of course, with this Linux offering they are distributing MySQL,” he said. A check of the Unbreakable Linux files confirms this. “We always told Oracle ‘you should distribute our product’, and now they are,” he added.
More from Marten tomorrow…
Comments
I like the irony of Oracle implicitly acknowledging that most people no longer really need an expensive database.
However, given that MySQL can be downloaded for free, why would anybody buy support from somebody who has no control over MySQL development?
Exactly, plus with MySQL's new (announced today) Unlimited site-wide support costing just $40,000, it seems Mickos is quite prepared to let Oracle try and make a business of under-cutting MySQL.
That is the risk of having an open source product and not differentiating by features. We have not open sourced Valentina for this very reason - pricing is accessible and scales well, and we provide significant value to developers. Oracle is a great product and so is mySQL but they've taken different roads.
Best regards,
Lynn Fredricks
Paradigma Software
http://www.paradigmasoft.com
"I like the irony of Oracle implicitly acknowledging that most people no longer really need an expensive database."
No irony there, Rick, Larry has long explicitly noted the primacy of applications. And of course, there's XE.
"However, given that MySQL can be downloaded for free, why would anybody buy support from somebody who has no control over MySQL development?"
Maybe as a developer you have a skewed idea what the purpose of support is. It is not simply a gatekeeper isolating developers from all but proven bugs, and perhaps the occasional enhancement. Someone selling 3rd party support for a product does far more for their customers. And of course, if it is open source, maybe Oracle will be the MySQL developer. Has IBM done nothing for linux?
I agree that there will be few enterprises that will run MySQL without support, but the MySQL situation is a little different to Red Hat in that MySQL actually owns the majority of its code.
Oracle lacks that "thing" that differentiates itself from the open-source community.
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