New MySQL versions around Sun betray open source? A few months ago, the famous open-source database MySQL was won by Sun at a price of 1 billion US dollars, which caused hot comments from people in the open-source industry, this purchase will affect this open-source database and the open-source industry, which is confusing for the moment. Recently, with the release of the new MySQL version, Sun's invisible hand will influence the development direction of MySQL after it was acquired, and once again caused an analysis of the impact of open source from all walks of life on this exchange, the following are two inspirations from the release of the new version.
Is the new version of MySQL developing open source?
Although the new version of MySQL does not give up its support for Linux and adds several new features, this database can be used for some key business applications of large enterprises, for example, the new MySQL version includes partitions, event scheduling, row-based replication, and disk-based clusters. these new features are expected to help MySQL improve its performance and scalability, make it more competitive in some crucial areas.
However, it is worth noting that some new features of MySQL will only be provided to paid enterprise users, rather than community edition. Sun officials confirmed that the new online backup function will only be provided to MySQL Enterprise Customers. for a large number of free MySQL Community Edition users, this function will not be available.
In the past eight months, this was the second time that MySQL had a conflict with its users. In last August, MySQL decided to stop providing source code for its MySQL Enterprise Edition to free community users.
Red Hat and many other open-source vendors test these functions by first providing new functions for free users. this MySQL decision has aroused great dissatisfaction in the open-source industry, many condemned MySQL as an open-source community that betrayed its growth.
A former employee of MySQL said, "Do MySQL still believe in open source? Or is it just partial belief ?" He said that although Sun itself is releasing an open-source version of its proprietary products, MySQL is trying to disable some features from the open-source community. He wrote in his blog, "I know this is all about money. anyone has the right to make any decisions on their own products, but MySQL does not seem to have made any decision based on open-source rules ."
MySQL becomes Sun's cash tree
Some users also threatened to abandon MySQL and turn to support other open source databases. For example, he said that the PostgreSQL database is running fast enough and is better than MySQL in terms of standard compatibility.
He wrote in his blog, "I hope Sun can see the correct practices and realize that going down the current path will only make MySQL and its community kill, free software developers can rebuild a similar product at an astonishing speed."
Micos explained that this change was taken to ensure that MySQL could have a viable revenue-generating business, he also hinted that the features initially provided to paying users will eventually be provided to the open-source community for free, and he also mentioned that anyone can develop open-source versions of the online backup feature. In addition, he believes that many other open-source database vendors have also adopted similar practices for their own technologies. MySQL is not the first vendor to eat crabs.
Don MacAskill, CEO of SmugMug, is a paying MySQL User who understands this new MySQL plan. "From a personal perspective, I think this is a bad news, but we should not forget that MySQL is an enterprise. They have customers and they have to solve their problems ."
Some analysts believe that this decision of MySQL not only harms open-source community users, but also suffers losses from paying users. Cole, a system administrator at Yahoo, said, "the number of MySQL Enterprise users is far smaller than that of Community Edition users, all the advanced features provided in the Enterprise Edition will only be available to a limited number of users. Therefore, they will provide paying users with a code that has not been fully tested."
Even before Sun's acquisition of MySQL, MySQL was prepared to restrict certain functions to only paying users of the Enterprise Edition. some open-source industry insiders still believed that Sun had played a major role in pushing the market.
Deb Woods, vice president of product development at Ingres, said, "as the first major upgrade since the acquisition, it is obvious that Sun's invisible hand is playing a role, sun pays more attention to profitability than to the true significance of Open Source. MySQL's recent behavior is obviously not recommended."