Group aims to keep MySQL healthy

One of original authors of MySQL, Michael 'Monty' Widenius, has founded the Open Database Alliance, a consortium that aims to become the industry hub for the open source database.

The move was announced Wednesday. The two founding parties of the vendor-neutral consortium are Widenius' engineering company, Monty Program, and the MySQL services and support company Percona.

Monty Widenius

(Credit: MySQL/Sun Microsystems)

According to a statement from the Open Database Alliance (ODA), the consortium will act as a hub for MySQL and its derivative code, binaries, training, and support. Specifically, the ODA will work on the software, support and service for Widenius' branch of MySQL, MariaDB.

MariaDB is an enterprise-grade, community-developed branch of MySQL. Its name is a function of the fact that Sun owns the trademark for the term "MySQL" and the fact that the source uses the Maria storage engine, in turn named after Widenius' daughter.

Sun, which oversees MySQL, is currently being acquired by Oracle. Oracle has its own proprietary database, which is a major competitor to MySQL. The ODA said in its statement that its formation was in part due to "uncertainty" facing the community.

"The intent of the Open Database Alliance is to unify all MySQL-related development and services, providing a solution to the fragmentation and uncertainty facing the communities, businesses and technical experts involved with MySQL," the ODA statement read.

Widenius said the ODA's goal was to "encourage a true open development environment with community participation, and to ensure that MySQL code remains extremely high quality."

"Participating members at this stage in the 'Alliance' will have a strong voice in how the organization is structured, and we look forward to collaborating with anyone in the industry that provides or depends on MySQL," he said in the statement.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Widenius said the ODA's nature as a "one-stop shop for anything related to MariaDB/MySQL"--where any member could provide services, tools, and software--was close to the original vision that David Axmark and Widenius had when they created MySQL.

"We planned to create a partner network where MySQL AB was a small technical company in the center with a lot of partners around us facing the large customers," Widenius wrote.

Widenius has previously expressed fear for the future of MySQL, in the wake of the Oracle takeover. At the time, he said "the biggest threat to MySQL future is not Oracle per se, but that the MySQL talent at Sun will spread like the wind and go to a lot of different companies which will set the MySQL development and support back years."

[ericyen]

Did someone tell Oracle that he is doing this?

[umbrae]

Why would Oracle need to know. MySQL source code is Open. Oracle may kill MySQL or privatize future MySQL code, but that does not affect the existing source code that has already been forked into other projects.

[neowolfwitch]

Doesn't really matter. It's OSS- Monty can do whatever he wants with the code. He just can't use the name "MySQL" since Sun/Oracle own the trademark to it. A lot of us will just need to get used to calling it something else if we want to continue to use something truly open source. Oracle will likely kill MySQL anyway- it's been a thorn in their side for several years now. I'm waiting for the announcement of "Oracle MySQL Enterprise 1.0", with a hefty price tag, of course.

[satishkhode]

There is no need for Oracle to kill the MySQL install. The existing customers can continue to use the MySQL. Oracle could benefit from MySQL in the way that IBM has from its acquisition of Gluecode, a company that commercializes the open-source Geronimo Java application server software and competed with IBM's own proprietary WebSphere product. IBM now offers Gluecode's software as a free product called WebSphere community edition. Oracle could position My SQL as a lower-end alternative, much as IBM has done with WebSphere CE, recognizing that their larger accounts aren't likely to switch from the enterprise-class database anyhow. At the same time, buying MySQL could open up a very sizable new market for Oracle in Small and Medium Business.

[zvonr]

Besides the Mysql trademark, Sun, future Oracle own the copyright for the code and most of the revenue that comes from it... not to mention that Oracle owns Innodb...

Owning the copyright is the ultimate freedom, you have the freedom to relicense the code...

[Random_Walk]

Yes and No.

The code is open source, which means that it can be forked, improved upon by the folks who wrote the thing initially, and passed around as usual. Copyright is merely the mechanism by which the source code remains open and free, and Oracle can't do jack about it.

[ferricoxide]

Oracle could choose to change the licensing model from GPL (with buyout clause) to a more traditional, closed licensing model. However, that only protects code changes moving forward. All code released prior to such a license change would still be subject to the provisions of the GPL. So, even if Oracle wanted to close the source and then kill the product, they'd only be doing so to code generated *after* the re-licensing. People in the OSS community can feel free to propagate, change and improve the pre license-change code as much as they want (so long as they didn't violate GPL). Simply put, Oracle can't do jack.

[ejsiddiqui]

The situation is not as much gloomy as it seems.

There could be these situations
Oracle dumps MySQL and an (or some) Independent group(s) pick this project
We have MySQL 5+ under GPL v2. This is the beauty of OpenSource, even if Oracle dumps MySQL some groups from community may rise and continue its development. We may see many flavors of MySQL based on same core.

Oracle dumps MySQL and no Independent group pick this project
Even if is not developed further, it has nothing to do with our existing installations they would work sill in the same way as they are now (under GPL v2).

Oracle strengthen MySQL
Based on Oracle's experience and expertise in DB technology. This could be ideal situation for Oracle as well as users (us). Oracle already has the majority market share in Enterprise and big business. Through this initiative they can also gain control in small and medium market. They could also offer easy migration tools to scale up and integrate in other db products. They may make MySQL a driver to attract other Oracle products.