[development] Oracle buys SleepyCat

[Khalid B]

On 2/15/06, Chris Johnson <chris at tinpixel.com> wrote:
> If Oracle buys Zend and plays nasty with PHP development, that could be ugly,
> couldn't it?  I worry more about PHP getting screwed than MySQL, because there
> are ready alternatives to MySQL but not for PHP.  Java?  Python?  Ruby?
> Bleagh.  ;-)

No, that is somewhat different.

PHP as a language is not owned/controlled by a company. MySQL is.

The PHP language is, and has always been, open source from the start.
It is being developed independantly of Zend, which specializes in tools
for PHP (IDE, accelerator, ...etc.), but does not control PHP.

The same is true for Drupal, which is not controlled by a company, unlike
other CMSs which have GPL versions (e.g. ezPublish).

It all depends on:

1. What Oracle does, and when?
2. The financial impact on MySQL AB (the company).
3. Reaction of the MySQL community (can they pick up and continue?)
4. Reaction of hosting companies (they go PostgreSQL or SQLite, or
stay with MySQL)

Too blurry now ... that, or I need my crystal ball washed ...