tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post901973903929556574..comments2024-03-02T07:39:03.908+02:00Comments on Monty says: Oracle gives only empty promises for MySQLMontyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06049512911785594864noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-56187551318009206192010-01-15T17:44:45.603+02:002010-01-15T17:44:45.603+02:00What are the implications of Oracle owning the sof...What are the implications of Oracle owning the software patents associated with MySQL? Could they find a GPL'ed community-forked version of MySQL in patent violation?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-76239654703461849402010-01-02T17:55:04.801+02:002010-01-02T17:55:04.801+02:00hi, Monty !
thanks for the important article, an...hi, Monty ! <br /><br />thanks for the important article, and for leading the Save MySQL campaign.<br /><br />One idea is to support entities like ODBA, at<br />http://odba.org/<br /><br />that can have an important role in the post-SUN MySQL history.<br /><br />All the best,<br />hiltonHilton Garcia Fernandeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11816607499360616777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-19661638752038968702010-01-02T08:22:36.198+02:002010-01-02T08:22:36.198+02:00To: Cindereye and Water Outbreaks. I am also a me...To: Cindereye and Water Outbreaks. I am also a member of the community and a very concerned one at that. I have been following the Sun/Oracle deal for quite some time now and I have no choice but to come to the same conclusions as Monty right now. I am a very level headed computer programmer, and I have always been fair in my estimations of intent and I prefer to give the benefit of the doubt. However, I can see no benefit of Oracle purchasing Sun except to remove MySQL from the picture. Sure Sun owns OpenOffice, Java, VirtualBox and Sun OS (to some degree), but they are not major money makers compared to the removal of Oracle's database competition MySQL. I can see Oracle removing MySQL and implementing OpenOffice integration with Oracle databases primarily. I too noticed that all their promises terminate after 5 years and although I agree that financially it is impossible to promise indefinite development funding, it is not impossible to support the creation of a team of collaborators to maintain ongoing community development efforts and the promise of an indefinitely open license. It doesn't need to be as permissive as the revised BSD license, but it should contain library and extension exceptions at least similar (maybe a little more permissive) to LGPL. Oracle has not even promised this. That last statement (Although none are legally binding) did not give any allowance for any part of their promises to exceed 5 years including licensing. That is scary and contains an intentionally hidden agenda from my point of view.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11357395656904717598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-87173197421620900332009-12-31T21:19:22.323+02:002009-12-31T21:19:22.323+02:00Cindereye:
Monty makes a very compelling argument...Cindereye:<br /><br />Monty makes a very compelling argument for why this is a bad deal for those who rely on free open source MySQL. Why are you not addressing his argument and instead making an ad hominem attack on his motives? <br /><br />This seems quite simple really. MySQL costs Oracle billions each year and their owning MySQL presents serious antitrust concerns. Yet the legalities are not the core concern, it's the fact that millions of individuals and businesses have come to rely on MySQL being free and continually updated. I've been starting internet businesses for 10 years w/ the help of MySQL. If I had to purchase licenses from Oracle to continue using MySQL it would have a negative effect on my bottom line. Not to mention I highly doubt a closed proprietary source database would be as useful to me as a software developer as the open source MySQL is. There is no guarantee this will happen with Oracle, but there is no disputing that this clearly becomes more likely, if not a distinct probability, once Oracle owns MySQL.<br /><br />As someone who has businesses that rely on MySQL, this move by Oracle certainly concerns me.Jameshttp://ibizonline.us/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-37752378861722369632009-12-23T21:06:15.650+02:002009-12-23T21:06:15.650+02:00Your analysis of the situation reminds me of the c...Your analysis of the situation reminds me of the current debate about the current health care legislation in the United States. Oracles' promises sound very good, but they can be picked apart. I don't know if I believe the spirit of what they entail, or your (Monty's) pessimistic analysis of them. I've been wrong before in my optimism surrounding promises given by large software companies ( see Microsoft-Novell patent deal ), but I'd still like to believe that they mean well.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16957222317299096782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-73958333353615400742009-12-18T03:27:33.681+02:002009-12-18T03:27:33.681+02:00Hi Monty. I think one cannot ask Oracle to promise...Hi Monty. I think one cannot ask Oracle to promise anything with an indefinite effect. It would not be realistic to do so. You know from experience it's impossible to control the fate of the project once you don't own it. Oracle could kill it in many ways. They could sell it further... Donate it to the community with only GPL license... The thing is that you don't want to save MySQL as a database engine, but as a database engine plus business around it. The only chance you have is to convince the right people that Oracle is trying to do something illegal (Try to buyout competition). Even that it would be hard to prove, as Oracle in theory could be "honest" and have "genuine " plans with MySQL.Cindereyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17229808122857117980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-83205250980674887152009-12-17T16:35:00.740+02:002009-12-17T16:35:00.740+02:00To: Cindereye:
I am part of the community. As I h...To: Cindereye:<br /><br />I am part of the community. As I have more insight into the matter than anyone else, it was logical that I had to start the campaign.<br /><br />The MySQL community, as I see is, is anyone that is using or depending on MySQL.<br /><br />A lot of the major MySQL users and open source advocates are also supporting this. Just use google to see links to this blog.<br /><br />You are right; I am subjective in the sense that I am prepared to do everything to ensure that MySQL doesn't die as an open source project.<br />However I always try to be as fair as possible. That's why I made it easy also for people that support Oracle to be able to tell the commission their point of view.Montyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06049512911785594864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-74461161271255456252009-12-17T06:01:10.137+02:002009-12-17T06:01:10.137+02:00With all respect Monty, why it had to be you who s...With all respect Monty, why it had to be you who started this "Save MySQL" campaign and not the community itself? Who is the community anyway? MySQL users? Why are not the major MySQL users doing this lobby? Why you? One can suspect you of subjective reasoning... (You might just not want the project you initiated to die)Cindereyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17229808122857117980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5552895785228669482.post-10998717558219930602009-12-16T12:27:59.830+02:002009-12-16T12:27:59.830+02:00While I don't totally agree with your position...While I don't totally agree with your position on the Oracle-Sun deal, I did catch that the Oracle promises were totally empty of substance because they weren't legally binding.<br /><br />I wonder why so many others didn't catch it though?Pharaoh Atemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13162057946869846774noreply@blogger.com