Sun is buying MySQL??
What, the?? Sun is buying MySQL… they’re putting a billion dollars into this. Here’s some words from MySQL on the subject. Some more. And here’s the MySQL blog. It confuses me a little, but maybe it shouldn’t. I’m conflicted as to whether or not this will ultimately be good or bad for MySQL. On the one hand, Sun’s kinda dieing. On the other hand, Sun’s recently begun doing some good and interesting things on the technical front.
There’s a couple keys… one is that MySQL is happy about this, that’s a good sign. The other is that MySQL is open and will stay open. Sun has a good track record with free software.
To me the most promising part of that piece was this graf, and it didn’t even have anything to do with MySQL:
And finally, this acquisition will kickstart a new set of investments Sun will be making into the academic community. Why universities? As we continue to invest in open source software development across the world, it’s apparent that nearly all roads lead to academic environments - and it’s high time we (as an industry) started watering the trees at their roots. It’s one thing to say you’re committed to education, it’s another to put your money where your mouth is. Within the next 60 days, Greg will be announcing a new set of global research fellowships designed to advance the state of engineering on the internet. (Stay tuned on this blog, and on Greg’s, for updates.)
This is Sun finally getting back to it’s roots. Remember back in the day when Sun owned all the universities? Yeah, they screwed that up, but now they’ve realized their mistake (although their wording makes you think that they’ve forgotten their own history) and are trying to get back in.
I guess, reluctant optimist that I am, I’ll believe that this is ultimately good for MySQL. What do you think?
