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● 01.16.08

●● Why Sun’s Acquisition of MySQL is Bad News to Linux

Posted in Database, Deals, GNU/Linux, Kernel, Patents, SUN, UNIX at 11:04 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

…but not necessarily to GNU and Free software

Last month we wrote about various risks MySQL was facing. The company is relevant to this Web site for a variety of reasons (not just because it’s powered by MySQL) and as you have probably heard by now, there was a major acquisition by Sun Microsystems. Here are some of the impacts of this acquisition, as explained by a group of separate sources. The impact of software patents is a tad alarming.

=> various risks MySQL was facing | ↺ is a tad alarming

MySQL AB, a company outspoken in its criticisms of software patents, will become part of Sun Microsystems, which tolerates such patents, presumably as a kind of necessary evil. This will leave the anti-software patent leadership in the hands of the EFF, Richard Stallman, and the like, while we wait to see if a new corporate champion emerges.

It was made very clear some months ago that Linux kernel developers were unhappy about OpenSolaris. Here is one possible interpretation:

=> ↺ one possible interpretation

By buying MySQL, Sun clearly wants to buy into that stack and success – and push out GNU/Linux, either with OpenSolaris (for those startups that Schwartz mentions), or with the full-fig Solaris for the “traditional” (= boring and conservative) enterprises.

It’s a clever plan that makes sense on paper, but it remains to be seen whether LAMP will get junked in favour of SAMP. I doubt it, personally, because despite all the excellent work Sun has done in the field of open source, there remain lingering suspicions, fuelled by its insistence on retaining significant control over both Java and OpenOffice.org.

Don Marti has this to add:

=> ↺ this

MySQL and Solaris are both using an advanced tracing tool to smoke out performance problems, and Linux doesn’t have anything like it.

On the brighter side of things, MySQL has a larger cushion of cash to find comfort in. Additionally, Sun has already adopted the GPLv3 (in places) — a licence which at least one prominent Linux kernel hacker detests. █

=> already adopted the GPLv3

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