The press release was distributed to the media by a popular newswire service: MySQL and SCO simply agreed "to jointly deliver a certified, commercial version of the popular MySQL database for SCO OpenServer 6, the newest release of SCO's UNIX solutions platform."
The release continued, "As part of the agreement, the companies will work together on a range of joint marketing, sales, training, business development and support programs that will benefit customers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Additionally, SCO will include a trial subscription to the MySQL Network enterprise database service with each new copy of SCO OpenServer -- and offer full MySQL Network subscriptions through its reseller channel."
Marten Mickos
This may seem an innocuous enough development, the sort of technology-company partnering that is announced all the time, two companies with mutual interests agreeing that they can benefit from one another, even if they are philosophically different or even compete with one another in other aspects of their business.
But it has ignited a verbal firestorm, a small one at least, due to SCO's status as open-source pariah due to a lawsuit it has against IBM that conceivably threatens the future of open source as the industry knows it, and also due to MySQl's status as an open-source hero due to its leveraging of open-source technology in challenging Oracle.
MySQL CEO Marten Mickos has reportedly been the recipient of many negative e-mails and attacks in industry forums, attacks that have been branded as "Stalinist" by a recent report in the online version of Forbes magazine. Mickos told Forbes that MySQL "is making money on (the SCO deal)...I think every single company is in the business of making money.”
Two questions spring to mind, and this report leaves it to SYS-CON's readers to answer them:
1. Even if the SCO/MySQL deal makes business sense, is it a philosophical betrayal of the open-source community?
2. Should open-source companies be held accountable by those who speak up within the open-source community, or by its customers and investors only?
About Open Source News Enterprise Open Source News Desk trawls the fast-growing world of Professional Open Source for business-relevant items of news, opinion, and insight.
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#2
Kyle Manjaro commented on 16 Oct 2005
THe first question is intriguing - I say (re: SCO) "Innocent until proven guilty no matter what it smells like until then" - in other words, slow though it is, let the processes (legal & extralegal) run to completion BEFORE we can see whether or not SCO has done what so many accuse it of.
THEN and ONLY THEN can the first question be asked (of MySQL's action) without the rank smell of crowd-thinking hypocrisy and damn the evidence (all of it) attitudes (about SCO). P.S. I am not an SCO supporter or user, but I do believe in fair process, otherwise what kind of "philosophy" are we "debating" here???
#1
Enterprise Open Source Magazine News Desk commented on 15 Oct 2005
Has MySQL Betrayed the Open Source Community?
MySQL's recent deal with SCO has caused some flaming with certain segments of the open-source community? Is the deal simply a reflection of a business that is growing up and making the sorts of deals common to everyday business practice? Or is it a betrayal of open source and what it stands for?
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