TAG | MySQL forks: Monty splits from Sun |
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| by David M Williams | |
| Wednesday, 25 February 2009 | |
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Page 3 of 3 When Monty announced his resignation this month he conceded he was dissatisfied back in August and September last year but was still trying to work something out with Sun.Featured Whitepaper
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He continued to work with Sun hoping for change that did not eventuate. Consequently, Monty has founded a new company called Monty Program AB. This, he says, will be a “true” open source company. He will begin working actively to produce a new MySQL code tree with “stable patches” and “some restructuring of the MySQL code to make it simpler, faster and with fewer bugs.” Technically, Monty says this is not a fork but rather a “branch” because he intends to pull in all changes from the official code tree coming out of Sun. Although, he admits, “some of the changes will probably be reworked.” Nevertheless, what this yet means for the future of MySQL is unclear. Without doubt Sun have the vaster set of resources and the commercial backing to keep the MySQL machination propelling forward. Even so, if Monty Program AB can develop – and importantly, deliver on – a reputation as making a stable, higher quality product then it is feasible many installed MySQL servers will eventually migrate to the Monty version. Additionally, Monty Program AB have plan to hire themselves to customers who need specific features or fixes in MySQL. These programming changes will be included in the general source base and hence available for all but there is no guarantee they will become part of the MySQL canon over at Sun, further differentiating the two products. Of course, for proprietary software vendors who wish to use MySQL with their solutions Sun are still the only outfit in town selling a non-GPL license, and this alone delivers a hefty chunk of change to Sun in fees. Either way, the future will be interesting. And, let this be a timely lesson to all open source developers that no project is immune from disharmony and forking. |
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