Forum Moderators: open

Message Too Old, No Replies

Oracle Buys SleepyCat (Berkeley DB)

Oracle tried to buy open-source MySQL, too

         

coopster

4:18 pm on Feb 16, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member



Oracle has been on a tear lately. Back in October of 2005 they bought Innobase, a small Finnish company that provides the InnoDB engine for MySQL. Two days ago Oracle bought open-source database company Sleepycat [news.com.com].


14-FEB-2006 Oracle today announced that it has added Berkeley DB to its embedded database product line which includes Oracle Lite for mobile devices and Oracle TimesTen for high performance in-memory database applications.

[oracle.com...]

And news.com also reports that Oracle tried to buy open-source MySQL [news.com.com]. Seems Marty is unwilling to allow that to happen at this point though. Where do you suppose this is all headed anyway?

jatar_k

9:43 pm on Feb 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member



oracle also released the php core for oracle and a couple other things as well.

It seems Oracle appreciates the power of open source. Maybe we can expect a free oracle version at some point, or at least they could make some kind of play for the millions that can't even come close to affording their db.

Lord Majestic

9:46 pm on Feb 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It seems Oracle appreciates the power of open source.

They sure do - that's why they want to buy-out key open source competitors so that actual copyright belongs to them - don't forget that open source is just a license, that's what allows MySQL to have commercial licenses for the same software, and this means that unless there are people on the side that actually contribute to the development a LOT then its fairly easy to force commercial companies to pay for open source software.

How? Easy - MySQL made interesting license for drivers used to access database - if you use the driver then your application must be open sourced OR you have to pay fee to avoid it!

Fair play to guys who spend so much time developing product - they sure deserve to be wealthy, but one has to consider alternatives such as PostreSQL or even Firebird.

py9jmas

10:31 pm on Feb 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



expect a free oracle version at some point,

You mean like Oracle Express edition?
[oracle.com...]

For completeness
Microsoft SQL Server Express edition
[msdn.microsoft.com...]

IBM DB2
[ibm.com...]