Comments on: Let MySQL Go: Oracle, Open Source, and the EU

By: Mark Smith

Mark Smith — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:17:59 +0000

I think you just don’t get open source.

The majority of open source development I’ve done has been salaried – fixing a bug, or adding a feature to an existing tool that my company uses. It’s never a large amount of work, and pretty much always cheaper than buying a commercial product instead of using the open source equivalent and having to get stuck in. I win, my company wins, and the open source project wins.

I do also occasionally do this sort of thing in my free time, and again, I do it because I want the tools I use to be better, and I’m not paying for them – so why expect someone else to fix them for me?

Finally, you can’t use proposals to VCs as evidence of the truth. Proposals to VCs are only as close to the truth as they have to be. If open source development is exploitative, I don’t feel exploited.

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:58:13 +0000

I’m missing highway humor… like this classic, showing the Oracle HQ as background:

“You just passed Redwood Shores. So did we. Informix”

Priceless. Too bad there was no Flickr or even digital cameras to preserve it.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:40:10 +0000

Colin,
You and I were both there in the heyday, when Informix was an independent company and it contended head to head with Oracle, Sybase, Ingres, etc. Where I sit in the enterprise software space, I never hear Informix mentioned by a prospect on a short list for a new DBMS deployment. IBM may keep poking at Informix, but it’s not in the limelight of the market.

Josh

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:36:39 +0000

Josh,

Every briefing I’ve ever had with a venture-backed open source apps company has included the prospect of an army of developers willing to work for free. It’s true some of you are drawing salaries for your work, but the model has always been postulated at the VC level on some degree of free labor.

Josh

By: Josh Berkus

Josh Berkus — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:24:29 +0000

Josh,

Actually, I get paid pretty well to work on open source technology. So do most OSS developers. There’s some kind of myth that most OSS developers are working in their spare time, for free; in reality, the OSS developers who write the most code generally collect generous salaries or are getting equity.

Of course, there are certainly OSS developers who get taken advantage of by VCs, but there are proprietary software developers who get taken advantage of as well, and business people, marketeers, etc. It’s how VC works, and you just have to understand the Faustian bargain you’re signing when you take it.

By: Colin White

Colin White — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:02:57 +0000

Agree on the MySQL analysis. I agree with Rian Puna on your Informix position. IBM is continuing to enhance Informix. It’s like saying IMS is dead. Both Informix and IMS are doing quite nicely for IBM.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:03:31 +0000

RIan,

I guess my overly strong language probably deserved yours. I’m neither kidding nor ignorant: Informix is a shadow of a shadow of its former self in the database market, thanks to IBM’s disinterest in doing much beyond maintaining the brand and supporting existing customers. Okay, it’s not dead. But being among the living dead isn’t much better either.

By: Rian Puna

Rian Puna — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:07:16 +0000

“… ….or IBM’s acquisition of Informix: dead, gone, and forgotten, …” you must be kidding right? or is it ignorance?

By: Peter Jillings

Peter Jillings — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:27:03 +0000

MySQL is too important a community asset to let a MNC own it. The EU understands that its role is protect freedom from corporate exploitation, and to keep open source in the public domain. If Oracle owned MySQL, they could immediately remove it from hard drives across the world, and THAT’s NOT OK.