[development] Oracle buys SleepyCat

[Khalid B]

Gordon hit the nail on the head for what I mean.

It is true that there are open source versions of everythings that makes
MySQL today (MySQL proper, InnoDB and BDB).

If MySQL AB suffers, then it will be a struggle to maintain the database,
since not too many people know its innards, and they cannot easily
self organize.

(This one danger of using open source software that is controlled by
a company, but that is another thread).

One of the reasons why MySQL is in wide use is that virtually every
hosting company has it for low end plans.

If MySQL development stalls, the dynamics of the "market" will shift
and perhaps replacements will become more widespread.

What I speculate will happen, is that at the low end, SQLite will prevail,
and the fact that it is already in PHP5 makes it very attractive.

At the high end, PostgreSQL will prevail. It is a better architecture and
has better features than MySQL, and is not controlled by a company.

So, it is possible that in the future we will have to move off of MySQL and
support those two databases. Although PostgreSQL is already in core,
it has issues. Also, lots of contrib modules cannot work with PostgreSQL.

This may not be this year, and it all depends on how Oracle behaves
towards MySQL AB when the time for renewal of licensing comes.

I can't imagine Oracle not buying those two pieces to cut MySQL AB's
legs off. I hope I am wrong ...