MySQL Community Response to Oracle-Sun Deal Mixed

MySQL: a last-ditch sale?

Oracle will use MySQL as a last-resort sale, one man said. “They’ll dangle it out there as a final option, only if they cannot sell Oracle DB in some form,” the developer said. “Then they’ll come back in a year or two and try to upgrade you to Oracle 12, or whatever version they’re on now. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing them put any enterprise features into MySQL, you can bet on that.”

Another MySQL admin said he thought having the financial backing of Oracle for the open source database was good, because Sun’s finances were “kind of iffy”. “The main thing, I think now, is this: okay, so we have Oracle DB and MySQL now on the same side. That’s a good team-up to fight against Microsoft SQL!” he said.

Roger Burkhardt, president and chief executive of Ingres – a longtime MySQL and SQL competitor – said in an email to eWeek that, “Oracle wants the Solaris operating system, and they want to control Sun’s Java assets to compete with the strength of Microsoft’s development ecosystem.

“The MySQL database and Glassfish Application Server come free with the package, and Oracle won’t allow them to cannibalise the licence revenues from their core database and WebLogic application server business,” Burkhardt wrote.

“Glassfish/MySQL will be positioned as developer offerings that provide an easy ‘on-ramp’ to production use of Oracle’s proprietary offerings. Customers won’t see the long-term investments required to create a competitive enterprise-class mission and are likely to see MySQL make even more use of proprietary Oracle interfaces and management tools.”

The bottom line to all of this? One DB admin at the conference had the absolute last word. “It all depends on [Oracle founder and CEO] Larry [Ellison]. He’s just going to do what he wants to do, anyway,” he said with a smile.