End of MySQL?

[Richard Pieri]

On Apr 21, 2009, at 1:40 PM, Rich Braun wrote:
> The news media has said little about the anti-trust implications of  
> Oracle
> taking over its lead competitor in the database server software  
> market.  Even
> though the Bush Era is over, I doubt the US government will lift a  
> finger to
> force divestiture of MySQL from Oracle.
>
> That leaves European regulators, perhaps, or an open-source community
> initiative to take MySQL back.

Okay: why?

No, really.  Why?  Oracle's acquisition of Berkeley DB did not kill  
Berkley DB.  Rather, it gave Oracle a simple database under a dual  
license with full Open Source and commercial applications.  Oracle has  
not followed your 3-step process with Berkeley DB.

So why do you expect Oracle to do the same with MySQL?  Rather, I  
fully expect Oracle to provide full-on support to MySQL.  Last week,  
Oracle had a hole in its products.  It had a high-end "big" database  
in Oracle RDBMS.  It had a low-end "small" database in Berkeley DB.   
But it had nothing in the middle, no mid-tier offering for  
applications too big for Berkeley but too small for Oracle proper.   
Today, assuming the buyout goes through, Oracle has a mid-tier  
database to fill that role, something with which it can compete with  
Sybase, Ingres and the like.

--Rich P.