Re: Oracle buys Innobase

felix(at)crowfix(dot)com writes:

> On Sat, Oct 08, 2005 at 10:31:30AM -0500, Scott Marlowe wrote:
>
>> What it comes down to is this. MySQL is dual licensed. You can use
>> the GPL version, or the commercial version. In order to sell the
>> commercially licensed version, MySQL must have the rights to all the
>> code in their base. So, in order for MySQL to sell a commercail
>> version of MySQL with innodb support, they have to pay innobase a
>> bit to include it, or rip it out.
>
> I don't understand. If both MySQL and Innodb are GPL licensed,
> commercial or not should make no difference, and they can add all
> the GPL changes they want o the last Innodb GPL release.

Yes, that is correct, MySQL can still distribute a GPLed version of
MySQL that includes InnoDB no matter what Oracle might do. However,
MySQL AB's current business strategy relies heavily on being able to
sell MySQL under a commercial license. If Oracle changes the deal
that MySQL AB has with InnoBase then it will be impossible for MySQL
AB to sell a version of MySQL with support for InnoDB tables under a
commercial license. All of MySQL's fancy new features revolve around
the far more capable InnoDB tables. Without that table type MySQL
reverts right back to the toy it was at version 3.2. MyISAM tables
lack ACID transactions, row level locking, hot backup ability, and
basically everything else you would want out of a database.

Oracle now has MySQL AB over a barrel. I imagine that when it comes
time to renegotiate the InnoBase license next year that the balance of
power in that relationship will shift dramatically.

> What am I missing?

What you are missing is that MySQL AB the company and MySQL the
database are two different things. MySQL the database will still be
distributable under the GPL, but even MySQL AB isn't going to be able
to distribute MySQL with the InnoDB table type under anything but the
GPL if Oracle yanks MySQL AB's license. Of course, it's entirely
possible that Oracle isn't planning to torpedo MySQL and that the
InnoBase/MySQL AB relationship will remain unchanged, but this news
has got to make MySQL AB's commercial customers nervous.

Jason