On the eve of the Oracle/Sun EU hearing

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On the eve of the Oracle/Sun EU hearing

Wednesday, December 9. 2009

Starting tomorrow there will be a hearing about the Oracle/Sun merger. Reuters reports in "Microsoft at EU hearing on Oracle/Sun deal: sources":

"The Commission has Microsoft, SAP and Monti Widenius and not one customer. Oracle will have eight customers supporting its position at the hearing," one of the people told Reuters.

According to this report, Eben Moglen will be at the hearing, too.

Meanwhile PJ of Grooklaw summarizes the situation in her article "Monty Program AB's Suggestion to EU Commission to Get Rid of the GPL on MySQL - Updated":

So, that should tell us what this Monty opposition is about. I don't view it as protecting Open Source. Clearly it's not about protecting the GPL'd version of MySQL. Let's be clear about that. It has to do with making money from Open Source code, but by forcing it to go proprietary, open core, in effect. A cunning plan, to use the EU Commission to accomplish such a goal.

That's their dream, as I see it. Is it yours? It surely isn't mine.

This is pretty much in line with my opinion about Mr. Widenius intentions i've expressed in "Can't stand it any longer ...".

Right in front of this hearing the spin doctoring starts. One example is this comment from IBMs
Steve Mills in "Rival dismisses Oracle/Sun antitrust issues":

Oracle’s proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems did not raise any significant antitrust issues and was likely to close soon in spite of objections raised in Brussels, according to Steve Mills, head of IBM’s software division and one of Oracle’s biggest rivals.

and

“MySQL comes in at the bottom of the market. There is a lot of ‘freeware’ out there today.”

The reaction of Mr. Widenius hired PR gun is at least interesting:

“They would like MySQL to be confined and lose relevance because they, too, feel competitive pressure from it,” Florian Mueller, acting for Mr Widenius, said.

WTF? Well, i don't know if Mr. Widenius and Mr. Müller are just paranoid or should opt for the anonymous megalomaniacs. Just because people aren't your opinion, there aren't necessarily after you. Sorry ... i don't have any sympathy for this behaviour. Together with the disgusting behaviour in the direction of Eben Moglen this gives an interesting picture.

Posted by Joerg Moellenkamp in English, Solaris, Sun/Oracle at 15:00 | Comments (6) | Trackback (1)
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Monty vs. mysql-gpl
Jörg Möllenkamp verweist in On the eve of the Oracle/Sun EU hearing auf den Artikel Monty Program AB's Suggestion to EU Commission to Get Rid of the GPL on MySQL bei Groklaw. Das "Problem" ist wie folgt: MySQL ist ein Programm, das unter der GPL und einer

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I mean... come on. Monty isn't stupid; he knows that if Oracle gets ahold of MySQL, MySQL will become like BerkeleyDB did, open sourced but IRRELEVANT. He doesn't want to see his "baby" become irrelevant.

#1 UX-admin on 2009-12-09 22:33 (Reply)

Given it's market share in the realm of embeddable databases, BerkeleyDB isn't irrelevant at all.

There was even a new product release in September: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/033461. Sorry, but i don't think that this is really the problem.

#2 Joerg M. (Homepage) on 2009-12-10 07:33 (Reply)

The "problem" is that Monty wants to continue making money off of his brain child.

Makes sense to me. It's not really a problem, unless it's artificially made into one.

At least Monty is forward enough to admit that MySQL DB is GARBAGE, and I truly admire him, as one of the principal developers of it, for that. It takes guts and gumption to admit that you built buggy garbage of a product, something that's otherwise sorely missing, especially at a certain company (*HINT* *HINT*).

And so, he's trying to do something about it, but is worried that he might be prevented from doing so. That makes sense too. At least to me it does.

#3 UX-admin on 2009-12-10 19:53 (Reply)

Strangely he sold his company to Sun. When he is so afraid about this, why did he sold it in the first place ?

Nobody prevents him from forking, as he already did with MariaDB ... it's just the way, that he wants back the Mysql. My personal opinion: I would say give it back to him ... for exactly the same amount of money Sun paid for Mysql AB

#3.1 Joerg M. (Homepage) on 2009-12-10 20:04 (Reply)

"Strangely he sold his company to Sun. When he is so afraid about this, why did he sold it in the first place ?"

For the money, isn't it obvious? It is logical.

Millions he cashed in on will go a long way towards working on his "baby".

How would you feel if someone offered you millions and enabled you to keep on working on the thing you love? Wouldn't you accept the cash? I know I would. That's logical, too.

He wants to keep making cash out of that work, but he might not legally be able to, depending on what happens next. He he's trying to lobby in order to secure/improve his position. Also logical.

I'm not saying I agree with what Monty is trying to do.

I am saying that what he is trying to do is logical.

#4 UX-admin on 2009-12-11 16:58 (Reply)

Of course it is logical ... he wants to earn more money and sees an opportunity to get the name back

Nevertheless the behaviour (the Eben Moglen task) is disgusting. Something trying to have the eggs and the hen as well for breakfast.

#4.1 Joerg M. (Homepage) on 2009-12-11 17:27 (Reply)

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