Comments on: Oracle snags open-source database company

Database giant buys Sleepycat Software and adds an open-source embedded database to its lineup.

[System Tyrant]

I wonder...

what Oracle plans to do with its newly acquired products?

Maybe I am just being paranoid, but I think Oracle will someday try to use its new products to hurt companies like MySQL. I can see Oracle shutting down those two DB a not looking back.

Or maybe they just plan to use them to help generate extra revenue from those companies that use them.

[katamari]

My sentiments.

My opinion is that Berkeley DB will disappear as a product in general. I have never seen Oracle do anything with the "technology" invented by companies they aquire.

Alternatives include Berkeley DB 1.x (not licensed to Sleepycat), which is still used within the base FreeBSD system; gdbm (GNU DBM, which uses the GPL -- not an option for many people), and djb's CDB (which is in no way shape or form as decent as Berkeley DB).

I also expect to see some licensing issues presented, and see products such as MySQL (which supports Berkeley DB) pull BDB support, and the same with PHP.

Today is a sad day.

[ian.waring]

Doh!

Everyone's being slow to think this through. MySQL is deploying at the rate of 40,000 per *day* versus Oracle's complete, historic Linux base which is a small proportion of this (i'll guess circa 9,000 installations).

MySQL's oxygen is support revenue and the ability to license a cluster product using a dual license model. Step 1: Oracle buys InnoDB, which is the tranactional storage engine under MySQL 5 and MySQL Cluster. Following Oracles purchase of InnoDB, MySQL's next move is to re-invigorate their pre-InnoDB relationship with Sleepycat. Oops, that one's gone too.

Meanwhile, a lot of MySQL sites come though implementation of the LAMP stack, where one of the most popular choices is PHP - Zend's product.

So, come on guys, see this for what it is. It's Oracle trying to cut off MySQL's oxygen supply. Whether they'll manage it or not - or if the open source community will manage to route around the resulting landscape, well, time will tell.

Oracle's approach appears to a lot more plausible that the gamut of "free" low end products that most DB suppliers are trying to compete against open source databases with. Including their own :-)

Ian W.

[rexwang]

Berkeley DB will continue

Oracle has no plans to discontinue any of the Berkeley DB products or change dual license business model. All of Sleepycat's employees have joined Oracle and will continue to develop, support, and promote the products. Both open source licensees and commercial licensees will be supported. Oracle will continue the business with minimal disruption.

Rex Wang
VP Marketing
Sleepycat Software

[fireball74]

But still...

As an "insider" you would know this is true for now. On the other hand, what's to say that both Berkley DB and InnoDB won't be as profitable as Oracle would like, and just shutting down both companies? No doubt, this is a possibility, which has those of us who support OSS concerned.

Oracle's track record isn't very good, and they rarely ever keep producing or supporting the technologies they aquire. So why would this be any different? Say, five years down the road, if the numbers don't add up the way they like?

[Blito]

The other shoes drop

I think this fulfills the OSI vision of companies using open source as their back-end to drive their 'mainstream' business. IBM has done allot to but if they buy up MySQL thatr would be allot. I think it would be awesome to have my work float into Oracles offices if they kept it open of course.
As far as Oracle making these products closed it would be a waste because then it would skirt back to the open source community that was beating them in the first place since the products are already pre-licensed under OS contracts. OS contracts provide complete ownership of the product to the consumer.

I think it's better that developers have an inroad to the mainstream in software design. Open source contracts are very diverse and very competitive even more then locked in contracts so there is allot of room for industry.

[Blito]

Comperable to OpenSuse and Fedora?

Novelle workls very well with the OpenSUSE commnity which was a reaction to SUSE becoming more closed. I thought they would not work with each other but Novelle figures they have to depend on the FOSS community just like Red Hat/Fedora. Right?