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20080119 Saturday January 19, 2008

links for 2008-01-19

Posted by webmink ( Jan 19 2008, 12:24:24 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [8] Trackback
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To be perfectly honest, if the past is any predictor for the future; if Dvorak thinks it's a bad idea, it's probably a pretty good idea

Posted by JohnS on January 19, 2008 at 01:01 AM PST #

Yeah,

This could be as big a deal for Sun as buying Cobalt Systems. Oh err!

Posted by dave on January 19, 2008 at 02:19 AM PST #

Only 2008?

Alan.

Posted by Alan Hargreaves on January 19, 2008 at 05:11 PM PST #

While J. Dvorak might be completely off of the mark, the deal does stink up to high heavens.

Let's do the math:

Sun just sunk 1 *billion* USD into MySQL.

What happens to PostgreSQL in Solaris now?

I wanted to see PostgreSQL succeed; heck I want to see Oracle succeed -- anything that will bring about the end of that crappy little half-hacked Linux DB called MySQL.

And now this.

I understand why Jonathan did it. They want to put Solaris there where Linux + MySQL rule.

But I still maintain it could have been done with PostgreSQL. At higher costs, but at least one crappy DB will be out of computing industry and into the rubble of IT/CS history, where it rightly belongs.

Posted by UX-admin on January 20, 2008 at 06:38 AM PST #

Perhaps UX-Admin and others worried about PostgreSQL should go and read Josh Berkus' blog entry on the acquisition - http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/database/soup/archives/sun-acquires-mysql-21822

Posted by James McPherson on January 20, 2008 at 05:25 PM PST #

I already read Mr. Berkus's commentary. And Jonathan's, for that matter.

Both commentaries say absolutely nothing *concrete* about what will happen to PostgreSQL now.

For instance, I know now that 400 people work on MySQL. Inside of Sun, since MySQL AB now belongs to SUNW.

How many people inside of Sun are working on PostgreSQL? Do you see where my concern is coming from?

PostgreSQL is an excellent DB. Au par with Oracle, albeit slower in performance, but still much much better than MySQL, feature- and usability-wise. My fear is that PostgreSQL will fall by the wayside even further now that Sun will be peddling MySQL.

I guess you could label the above as FUD if you like, but I want to know this:

how many people inside of Sun are working on PostgreSQL?

Posted by UX-admin on January 21, 2008 at 05:44 AM PST #

UX-admin: First, nothing concrete has been said about any future arrangements apart from an intent to acquire MySQL AB. We're now moving on to the "integration planning" stage of the acquisition where we plan how things will work. Even then the plans we make will be confidential.

Prior to this step, Sun was working on JavaDB (Apache Derby), PostgreSQL and MySQL (among others), all at a technology and partnership level. Sun doesn't routinely disclose its staffing strategies and our PostgreSQL work is no exception.

However, it would be fair to say that none of our database work was previously a focus item in our software strategy. This acquisition raises the profile of all the database work to top-level and gives it a sales and marketing force that applies to all technologies.

Paradoxical though it may seem, acquiring MySQL is likely to increase, not decrease, work with PostgreSQL.

Posted by Simon Phipps on January 21, 2008 at 06:36 AM PST #

MySQL cannot eat up PostgreSQL because of the simple fact that PG has and performs better in many features, some of which are _absent_ in MySQL.
PG is an elephant on land and MySQL is a dolphin in water.
Although both are mammals, their native environments are different, and so are their capacities and roles in nature/industry.

Clear?

Enough said.

Posted by nowyouaretalking on January 22, 2008 at 01:38 AM PST #

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