Comments on: A Tangible (negative) Impact of the Sun/MySQL Acquistion http://www.barkingseal.com/2009/05/tangible-negitive-impact-of-the-sunmysql-acquistion/ Applied Trust off-leash: IT infrastructure, security, and performance Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:30:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: David Lovering http://www.barkingseal.com/2009/05/tangible-negitive-impact-of-the-sunmysql-acquistion/comment-page-1/#comment-65 David Lovering Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:25:21 +0000 http://www.barkingseal.com/?p=834#comment-65 A lot of government sites have taken JPL's initiative to transition away from Oracle in favor of various turnkey-hardened versions of MySQL over the last "n" years, benefiting both their performance and budget constraints. While no one will argue that MySQL has all the bells-and-whistles that Oracle does, the bulk of the added-value is illusory: many of the calls are either little-used or can be constructed easily out of modified SELECT, JOIN or other comparable components of MySQL. This overhead has historically added other benefits as well: installing Oracle 10g in a "Best-Practices" configuration requires a week and and stack of manuals; installing a hardened version of MySQL - maybe an hour. [All exaggerations can be attributed to the lack of lucidity in the Oracle manuals]. Sun's acquiring MySQL was bad enough - a partnership would have fulfilled the same business objectives without compromising the expectations of the GPL crowd, but Oracle? That's like selling the American Cancer Society into bondage to Phillip Morris; and the penalties are to be felt on both sides of the fence. As long as MySQL was a free-agent in the marketplace Oracle was kept under the gun to accelerate the performance of its own products, streamline the packages to be slightly less memory hoggish, and generally provide a tighter end product. Now, with their major performance competitor tidily wedged in their hip pocket, Oracle can return to its former state of dormancy and relax the QA frenzy that resulted from a little honest competition. This is of course a gross over-simplification: MySQL retains at least a vestige of an existence outside Sun/Oracle, and I'm sure stock options have been generously exchanged under the table. Never-the-less, the public's expectations of a real and substantial counter to Oracle's excessive and Draconian licensing strictures are at lest temporarily dashed. Darth Vader finally won thru. A lot of government sites have taken JPL’s initiative to transition away from Oracle in favor of various turnkey-hardened versions of MySQL over the last “n” years, benefiting both their performance and budget constraints. While no one will argue that MySQL has all the bells-and-whistles that Oracle does, the bulk of the added-value is illusory: many of the calls are either little-used or can be constructed easily out of modified SELECT, JOIN or other comparable components of MySQL.

This overhead has historically added other benefits as well: installing Oracle 10g in a “Best-Practices” configuration requires a week and and stack of manuals; installing a hardened version of MySQL – maybe an hour. [All exaggerations can be attributed to the lack of lucidity in the Oracle manuals].

Sun’s acquiring MySQL was bad enough – a partnership would have fulfilled the same business objectives without compromising the expectations of the GPL crowd, but Oracle? That’s like selling the American Cancer Society into bondage to Phillip Morris; and the penalties are to be felt on both sides of the fence.

As long as MySQL was a free-agent in the marketplace Oracle was kept under the gun to accelerate the performance of its own products, streamline the packages to be slightly less memory hoggish, and generally provide a tighter end product. Now, with their major performance competitor tidily wedged in their hip pocket, Oracle can return to its former state of dormancy and relax the QA frenzy that resulted from a little honest competition.

This is of course a gross over-simplification: MySQL retains at least a vestige of an existence outside Sun/Oracle, and I’m sure stock options have been generously exchanged under the table. Never-the-less, the public’s expectations of a real and substantial counter to Oracle’s excessive and Draconian licensing strictures are at lest temporarily dashed.

Darth Vader finally won thru.

]]>