Big news in the Database world as Oracle takes over Sun and MySQL puts up a fight

Michael Widenius, the creator of MySQL, is calling on all open-source advocates and MySQL users to write to the European Union Commission to protest the takeover of Sun Microsystems by Oracle. As you may know, Sun bought MySQL not long ago, and now Sun is in turn being bought by Oracle. The U.S. has already approved the merger, but the E.U. is considering it on anti-trust measures. 

Update: Oracle released a statement promising to continue development on MySQL under the GPL. This should put to rest some of the issues Michael has.

You can read Michael's plea on his blog. However, a more succinct list of points was posted on Reddit, by a user who claims to be Michael. Many comments argued that Monty had sold out by selling to Sun. montywi responds:

Please explain where I, Monty, did things wrong:

• I released, under Open Source a project that I had worked on for 17 years

• David and I did this under a dual licensing scheme so that we could afford to work full time on the project

• Before and in MySQL Ab, we made no profit; All money was put into development in something that all Open Source and inhouse projects one can use for free. We used providers of closed source application to pay for the development of a ttotally free product.

• We where lucky and managed to sell MySQL AB, including the MySQL copyright to Sun and made some profit on that (after 27 years of work).

• I continued to work in Sun on MySQL to be able to contribute even more to the project. I thought that Sun would be a good home for MySQL as they had all the reasons to take good care of MySQL and have nothing to gain from killing MySQL as an Open Source project.

• Unfortunately I couldn't convince Sun that MySQL should be developed in a more open manner, together with the community. I left and started a fork, MariaDB, that is developed together with the community, to ensure that MySQL would continue to be open. The idea was to ultimately work together with Sun to provide a better MySQL.

• Monty Program Ab, who is the main driver of MariaDB, is set up in such a manner that there is no real money for me to make on MariaDB; Everything we earn is given out as salaries and bonuses to the employees. (Check the hacking business model at askmonty.org)

• Now when Oracle is trying to buy Sun and core developers of MySQL is leaving Sun, I am employing them to keep the main development team together and ensure that they can continue to work on MariaDB/MySQL for the forseable future.

• I am working actively to try to ensure that MySQL will be available and usable for all in the future. It's to ensure the last that I have asked the MySQL users and community to write to EC and tell them what they feel about the Oracle/Sun/MySQL deal.

So where did I go wrong? I have done my best to be a good citizen in Open Source and have managed to create something that millions can use for free and savied a lot of people a lot of money. Still yoyu suggest that I am doing something wrong when I am just trying to keep my project alive.

So there you have it. Regardless, the effects of this deal could have a far-reaching impact on future MySQL development.