Sun Microsystems Purchases MySQL
Some big news on the FOSS front. Sun has purchased MySQL.
And what a price tag Sun has paid for the little database that could! This press release from Sun Microsystems regarding the purchase, states that:
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL AB, an open source icon and developer of one of the world’s fastest growing open source databases for approximately $1 billion in total consideration.
WOW! $1 billion dollars! Seems like a hefty price tag to me. As a FOSS supporter though, I feel greatly honored and excited by this high price. Sales like this really confirm that FOSS is a serious enterprise player in the Information Technology arena. When the community works together…it really does work well.
This press release from MySQL AB pretty much states that there should be no changes to MySQL from a FOSS perspective. Worried that Sun will start focusing MySQL development work on Solaris over any other OS? The press release specifically states that this will not be occurring. If there are any changes, they will be positive ones. Sun intends to began assigning more resources towards MySQL in order to help improve the project even more.
Over the past couple years, there has been growing confusion over MySQL AB’s licensing terms for it’s commercial version of the database. Hopefully, Sun will take this opportunity to clarify the commercial offerings of MySQL.
What is of particular interest is the fact that Sun had been using Oracle in many of it’s products, including Solaris for quite some time. This move makes one wonder if their relationship with Oracle is weakening. However, it makes sense to me that it’d be better to enter the database market directly then just simply licensing from Oracle all the time.
Only time can really tell us if this move will ultimately benefit MySQL. However, I believe that we will end up seeing great growth in MySQL from this change.
Congratulations to MySQL and the MySQL community!
Axelilly's Ponderings 