Sun sets on open-source computing
The conditions attached to Oracele’s takeover of Sun will not protect competition.
The European Commission may have elicited some promises from Oracle before approving its takeover of Sun Microsystems (“Oracle-Sun merger wins EU’s blessing”, EuropeanVoice.com, 21 January), but the deal has set in motion the end of Sun Microsystem’s open-source database MySQL and, with it, hastened the slow death of open-source computing.
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Oracle has promised the EU’s antitrust authorities to keep MySQL free and to continue to invest in MySQL, but this does not address the underlying problem – that MySQL competes head-on with Oracle’s databases and that, since the vast majority of its 11 million installations are free versions, Oracle has no interest in keeping MySQL alive and kicking for years to come.
So what we are likely to see is Oracle moving to reduce MySQL’s client base. It will do so by pushing MySQL’s paying customers – including a large number of corporations and governments – to migrate to an Oracle database. This will be eased when active, contractual support for the most recent, generally available version of MySQL – 5.1 – ends on 31 December. Development of the next version of MySQL has been halted. This fits within an established pattern: Oracle has stopped innovation with other database-related products it has acquired over the past 15 years.
When clients, paying and non-paying, see limited innovation in the product, they will be inclined, if not forced, to explore alternatives.
What will – and can – software developers and system administrators, like me, do to slow the pace at which the sun is setting on MySQL and open-source software following the Commission’s decision?
It would seem on the surface that, given that MySQL is open-source (it has a general public licence, or GPL), it would be easy to ‘fork’ the project; that is, to take the source codes and start to develop the platform independently. In fact, a number of forks have already been made. However, forking will not work: would-be forkers do not own the copyright, so there is no clear future revenue stream and, without clear project management, none of these forks will be sustainable. Few would have confidence in the mix of MySQL derivatives would emerge.
Another option is being followed by 40,000 or so people (most of them business users of MySQL): that is the number of people who have over the past month signed a petition publicly calling for MySQL to be sold to a suitable third party (the number of signatories is itself evidence of how little faith there is in Oracle’s future stewardship of MySQL). At the least, the petition ought to give the Commission extra cause for reflection when it next has to handle an anti-competitive acquisition involving open-source software.
Lastly, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) should become engaged. ECIS is on record warning against a single source gaining control over a standard commonly used in the IT industry. It has been a real voice and advocate for open-source computing for years. Suddenly, it is silent. Has Oracle, one of its members, got a strong grip around its throat?
From:
Sander Gerz
The Hague