MySQL moves are troubling

Sam Varghese
Monday, 18 December 2006 02:34

Opinion and Analysis

Of course, everyone has now forgotten that MySQL did a deal with a company which was the first to issue a threat to GNU/Linux users. Public memory is woefully short and the attention span of the average individual is now byte-sized.

The Microsoft deal that MySQL struck will see the company become a part of Redmond's Visual Studio Industry Partner Program. Under the agreement, MySQL will produce a plug-in for Visual Studio 2005, making it possible for Visual Studio developers to build applications for MySQL while users would be able to manage MySQL database objects from within the Studio integrated development environment.

Funny, but when Novell announced it was implementing support for Microsoft's OpenXML format in its (Novell's) version of OpenOffice.org, there was a huge outcry. But when MySQL does something similar to integrate its database with products from Microsoft, there hasn't been half the noise. One could well ask why? This deal was done in June 2006.

And now the third announcement from MySQL. Initially, it was reported that MySQL's enterprise product had dropped support for Debian - that is, it would not be producing binaries for this distribution. Later, a company official said this was incorrect: "We messed up some internal communication in MySQL and someone in Sales was left with the wrong information."

The fact that there was scope for miscommunication is troubling. If nothing had changed from its previous policy, why did sales ever bother to think up this policy?

A couple of problems have appeared on MySQL's horizon recently. Last year Oracle bought the small Finnish software maker Innobase which provides a key piece of MySQL.

This year, Oracle has begun selling GNU/Linux on its own - Red Hat's version with the trademarks stripped out - and offering support for its own database. For MySQL, which is a competitor on the lower rungs of the ladder, it is an additional worry and could be one of the reasons behind the deal with Microsoft.

But then as a very wise person wrote many centuries ago, it is difficult to take fire into one's bosom and avoid getting burnt.