At MySQL, it's business as usual

By Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 29 January 2008 11:01

Opinion and Analysis

With Sun Microsystems announcing earlier this month that it had acquired the most popular open source database company, MySQL, there has been speculation aplenty, some of it grossly misinformed, on just how much change this will mean for staff at the small Swedish company.
Sun is altogether a different beast from MySQL which has a workforce of around 650; many of those on the technical side work remotely.

As Stewart Smith, senior software engineer based in Melbourne, said during a brief chat at Australia's national Linux conference today, his closest colleague is often someone in Beijing.

But as all the techies have a good command over written English, IRC and email serves as an effective substitute for being there in person.

"A lot of hiring is done sight unseen," said Smith. "What matters is the quality of coding and good written English."

He said if staff were displaced due to the merger, then they would be mostly redeployed within the company. "Our founders are behind it and unusually we are a company which trusts its management."

Arjen Lentz, who for a long time was synonymous with MySQL in Australia, and who left the company last July - he was employee number 25 at headquarters and number 1 in Australia - backed this assertion.

"Lots of MySQL employees are active within the community and have been encouraged to blog," he said. "This is not a closed company, what happens is transparent.

"While I was the lone MySQL employee here, I had to perform multiple roles, even being the media spokesman. Often my views were not exactly what the company held to but it really didn't matter."