Re: Oracle buys Innobase

On Saturday 08 October 2005 17:35, Chris Browne wrote:
> felix(at)crowfix(dot)com writes:
> > On Sat, Oct 08, 2005 at 10:31:30AM -0500, Scott Marlowe wrote:
> >> What it comes down to is this. MySQL is dual licensed. You can use
> >> the GPL version, or the commercial version. In order to sell the
> >> commercially licensed version, MySQL must have the rights to all the
> >> code in their base. So, in order for MySQL to sell a commercail
> >> version of MySQL with innodb support, they have to pay innobase a
> >> bit to include it, or rip it out.
> >
> > I don't understand. If both MySQL and Innodb are GPL licensed,
> > commercial or not should make no difference, and they can add all the
> > GPL changes they want o the last Innodb GPL release.
> >
> > What am I missing?
>
> If they do not hold a fairly unrestricted license to *resell* InnoDB,
> then MySQL AB would be unable to sell "traditional proprietary
> commercial licenses" to the combination of MySQL and InnoDB, which is
> the way that they actually _make money_.
>
> Based on the comments in Oracle's press release, it appears that MySQL
> AB *does* have some form of contract with InnoDB Oy Inc to resell
> InnoDB, but that contract expires some time next year.
>
> If the contract is not renewed, then MySQL AB would only be permitted
> to link MySQL (tm) to InnoDB under the conditions of the GPL, which
> would mean that MySQL AB could only distribute a MySQL(tm)/InnoDB(tm)
> combination under the conditions of the GPL.
>
> This would essentially *destroy* their revenue model, which is
> predicated on the notion of selling people a "traditional proprietary
> license" to MySQL+InnoDB on the basis that they should be fearful of
> GPL-licensed software as it always forces you to release your code
> "for free." (There's some truth to this, but possibly not as much as
> MySQL AB would have you believe.)

Didn't MySQL AB acquire SAPdb (which was Adabas D before)? AFAIK (and you're
welcome to correct me since I might very well be wrong) SAPdb supports
transactions and foreign keys. If that's the case MySQL AB might be in a
position to offer the bells and whistles without InnoDB support if they work
out the deficiencies of SAPdb.

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