End of MySQL?

[Matthew Gillen]

Dan Ritter wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 01:40:30PM -0400, Rich Braun wrote:
>> There's always PostreSQL.  But the big picture seems to be this:  large
>> software companies have found a way to co-opt the most popular open-source
>> applications in a now-routine 3-step process:  (1) put up some money to help
>> development, (2) hire a team and adopt the core technology, then (3) put the
>> whole thing up for sale on Wall Street.  Highest bidder is invariably the
>> largest/most-expensive rival.
>>
>> Is that what's going to happen to the rest of the open-source world?
> 
> No, only the ones which don't have real communities and aren't
> backed by real open-source licenses.

Couldn't have said it better.

One more thing I think is worth pointing out is what happened with QT.  Qt was
in the same position that MySQL was w.r.t. being dual-licensed: use GPL and
infect your apps, or buy a commercial license.  Nokia bought Trolltech, but
they weren't interested in making money from Qt; they wanted an easier
programming environment for their phones, and wanted Qt to reach a bigger
audience.  So instead of issuing commercial licenses, they just released it
under an even less restrictive license: the LGPL (ie the non-infectious GPL).

That said, I think it will be interesting to see what happens to MySQL (the
code, not MySQL-AB the company).  I highly doubt that it'll fade into
obscurity (much to the chagrin of some people on this list ;-) ), simply
because it's got such a large user base, and the vast majority of its users
don't care if the thing "linking to" MySQL needs to be GPL'd (since either
they aren't distributing it, or they're just using it as a backend for drupal
or some such that is already GPL'd).

Matt