Sun Backs Off MySQL Crippleware
In an official statement on his blog Kaj Arno, “VP of Community” for MySQL, as said that Sun has done an about face on making parts of it’s upcoming 6.0 MySQL release closed source.
To quote Kaj, “MySQL 6.0’s pending backup functionality will be open source…”
He blamed the experimentation of the business model on “a company considering an IPO” but that it “made less sense in the context of Sun, a large company whit a whole family of complementary open source software and hardware products.”
Ummm… yeah, sure.
I’m sure it had nothing whatsoever to do with the huge Community Edition (free version) users screaming “not fair” until their throats were dry.
It seems that the Community Edition folks have more time than money - so what did you think they would do? They have nothing better to do all day then bitch and moan about MAYBE not getting something for free (remote backup) and that it’s NO FAIR that those “rich” people actually paying a small licensing fee and keeping the company in business should get something they MIGHT not get.
People, people.
OK - so they’ve backed off of this issue on this release. But, you gotta know that at sometime, in the future, they are going to make some add-ons closed source - for paying customers only.
The good news is that most of the APIs are open - so those of you with more time than money can go ahead and spend time writing your own functionality that is equal to (or better than) the closed source one.
Then feel free to give it away - free.
