MySQL AB Welcomes Oracle to the FOSS Database Market

Dear MySQL User,

MySQL AB and the Free / Open Source database market today received some
unexpected recognition by Oracle, through their acquisition of Innobase Oy.

So what does this have to do with MySQL?

Well, Innobase is the provider of the popular InnoDB Storage Engine in
MySQL. One of the things our users appreciate about MySQL is its unique
pluggable storage engine architecture. You have the flexibility to
choose from number of storage engines including MyISAM, Memory, Merge,
Cluster and InnoDB. And with MySQL 5.0, we added the new Archive and
Federated storage engines.

Just like the rest of MySQL Server and its Storage Engines, InnoDB is
released under the GPL. With this license, our users have complete
freedom to use, develop, modify the code base as they wish. That is why
MySQL has chose the GPL: to protect the freedom that users value in free
/ open source software.

In their press release on
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/press/2005_oct/inno.html
Oracle states:

"InnoDB is not a standalone database product: it is distributed as a
part of the MySQL database. InnoDB's contractual relationship with MySQL
comes up for renewal next year. Oracle fully expects to negotiate an
extension of that relationship."

We have also issued a press release on
http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/news/article_968.html
where Mårten Mickos, CEO of MySQL, states:

"This announcement represents further validation of the open source 
movement. The beauty of open source software and the GPL license is 
freedom. As with all MySQL code, InnoDB is provided under the GPL 
license, meaning that users have complete freedom to use, develop, and 
modify the code base. We are pleased to see even broader industry 
acceptance of open source database technology. This also means that 
database developers now have even greater flexibility to use MySQL and 
Oracle in the same environment."

For you as a MySQL user, I want to stress a couple of further points of
the "don't worry" type:

* we remain committed to support our existing clients and users, using
InnoDB and other storage engines
* we will continue to provide development and bug-fix resources for
InnoDB users
* we continue to sell to our prospects and woo new users, using InnoDB
and other storage engines
* there will be no impact on MySQL 5.0, scheduled for GA in Q4, 2005
* we will continue to include InnoDB in future releases of MySQL
* Innobase Oy is a separate company – and is not a part of MySQL AB;
Oracle has no ownership of MySQL AB
* we will work with Oracle as a normal business partner

Go MySQL!

Kaj Arnö
VP Community Relations
MySQL AB



-- 
MySQL Announce Mailing List
For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/announce
To unsubscribe:    http://lists.mysql.com/announce?unsub=gcdma-announce@m.gm...