Save MySQL
Look over to the left sidebar of this Blog. There is a new link there and here called Save MySQL. For those of you who already know what is going on, there need be no further explanation. Just go there and sign the petition if you haven’t already.
For the rest of you, I am going to give you an overview of the issue, along with my feelings on the issue and my fervent hope that you will step up and join us in the fight to Save MySQL.
MySQL is a database product that is produce by Sun Microsystems, It is currently free, and is used on many systems, as a way for a web developer to create databases, that can be used in many common applications. Shopping Carts, Link Directories, Blogs, Forums, Job Sites, Classified Sites are all created around MYSQL among other products.
The fact that MySQL is free, gives even the smallest of businesses a fighting chance for Internet Survival.
Recently, Oracle purchased Sun. As usual, no one in Washington protested and no regulatory agency did a thing to stop this merger. Oracle is a commercial based Database Company, that has some of the highest fees in the world for using and licensing their products. Only the largest of corporations can afford them. They are the Goliath of the Database sector.
Like Microsoft, they have the attitude, the lobby and the money, to pay off any opposition to their business moves, and their past history has shown that they will use all three to get what they want.
I have been in the Computer Industry full time since 1987. I knew many of the early software developers. The mom and pop companies that were all but destroyed by Microsoft either through buy outs, the inability to pay Microsoft’s outrageous licensing fees, or by Microsoft stealing their products or code sets. Even today, there are still lawsuits flying because the tactics haven’t changed.
The Internet has been the only place where some of these small developers could come back to life again. It is wonderful to see online web applications from some of those same people, that were all but destroyed years ago. If Oracle is allowed to start charging for MySQL, it will be another wave of devastation even worse than what has happened in the mainstream software development arena. Why? Because far more companies and developers use the MYSQL product. I have several clients where their entire online business, is based on a MySQL product. None of them could afford a large licensing fee.
So, whether or not this directly affects you right now, or not, please go sign the online petition and also call your Congressman or woman and let them know they need to quit supporting these no hassle mergers in all industries. Let them know you are sick of companies ruining the Software Industry and the Internet and that you support Saving MySQL. Also that you support Net Neutrality.
It is long past the time to start fighting back agains the greed and corruption that is killing this country. If the current economic meltdown isn’t enough to convince you, I don’t know what will.
Don’t let Oracle kill MySQL.