

Sun Buys MySQL - edw519
http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/sun-acquires-mysql.html/

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mojuba
Expect to see lots and lots of Java in MySQL in the near future. The worst
thing that could happen to any good software project - intrusion of Java -
will happen almost certainly to MySQL.

~~~
mojuba
Got downvoted on reddit for a similar remark. The only logical conclusion I
can derive from that is "Ron Paul likes Java".

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mynameishere
_"Ron Paul likes Java"_

Nah, too black.

~~~
mynameishere
Lame downmods. It's just a joke.

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pius
I haven't downmodded you (at least, not yet), but all I'm going to say is that
(1) it's a lame joke and (2) there's a pattern with you and this crap.

Quoth you a couple months ago:

 _If there is anybody here who thinks that blacks and Jews are genetically
equivilent [sic] in intelligence, raise your hands. Please, I beg you._
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=88082>)

Was today's comment so bad? Nope, just lame. Unfortunately, people make
logical leaps where they shouldn't. As you said so eloquently in another
thread when you asserted that blacks must obviously be stupid: at what point
does the evidence become overwhelming?

~~~
mynameishere
Yeah, I'm still waiting for some evidence for that particular claim. You might
think it "bad", and bad as it might be, I'm perfectly willing to believe
whatever the evidence points to. There just isn't much.

By the way, for anyone who missed it, the media ran its usual hit pieces
against Ron Paul, accusing him of racism, etc, etc. Hence my (admittedly lame)
joke.

~~~
yters
(Comment about things you can't say)

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runningskull
Facebook = $15 billion. MySQL = $1 billion?

The world is a messed up place.

~~~
idea
Facebook is overvalued. But the numbers 1 and 2 in a market are much more
valuable than the rest. If you buy number 1 you are the market leader and if
you buy the runner up you can fight for market share or buy some smaller
players later on. The number 3 is only interesting if the company can quickly
gain a lot of market share. Often those companies are sold off again if that
does not happen.

~~~
mattmaroon
Facebook also has a much better revenue model than providing support for open
source software.

~~~
abc3
Both of the above comments refer to cliches that have been repeated so often
that it's tempting to believe them.

We read all the time about number 1 or number 2, but companies survive or die
based on profitability and fiscal responsibility, not market position.

Also, revenue model != revenue or, more importantly, earnings. And whether a
company has a good revenue model is at best peripherally related to how
accurately it's valued.

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eVizitei
It's the dream, for a company like MySQL. Build it until the community loves
your product, and then cash in when you get acquired. Congrats to those guys
for succeeding. I can only hope that I'll one day be fist-bumping with a major
technology player who recently acquired one of my products (don't we all?).

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plinkplonk
For a billion dollars, they could sponsor 200 years of "DARPA Robot Car Race"
style events which would really move technology forward.

Please don't get me wrong, It is Sun's money to do with as they wish, I am
just trying to get my head around a billion dollars.

I doubt if they'll ever see a commensurate return on that investment. They'd
have to make millions of dollars in profit per year just to keep up with the
time value of money.

~~~
SwellJoe
You don't think Sun wants Oracle's slice of the pie and is perfectly
reasonable for wanting it? They know better than anybody what that slice is
worth...Sun and Oracle were the basis of most of the first Internet boom and
both made out like bandits. Even if they can only make a tenth what Oracle
makes, it's still worth every penny.

It would have been smarter to buy MySQL AB earlier...but Sun only recently
really got that Open Source religion, and earlier they would have been reviled
for stepping in and buying up MySQL (if the MySQL guys would have even sold to
a pre-OSS friendly Sun). Sun also had a bad habit of buying and killing
companies, which is presumably now corrected. The OpenOffice acquisition
turned out well (ignoring the Java dependency issue already mentioned), so
everybody probably trusts them to do the right thing by MySQL.

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bayareaguy
This is an interesting move, but will make money for Sun? MySQL isn't free but
it's not expensive. It will take an awful lot of sales before they break even.

I'm guessing they will find some way to raise the price of MySQL licences,
perhaps by bundling higher-priced licences with Solaris.

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kashif
One more reason to stick with PostGreSQL in the long run...

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stoptypingnow
Many Sun boxes are sold to run Oracle. Many Sun boxes are not sold because
there are solid options that are not Oracle.

Step 3... Profit!

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Tichy
I guess I still have not fully understand the concept of earning money with
open source software. Any ideas on how they plan to earn a billion dollars
with MySQL? I thought what most open source companies do is sell consulting
from time to time (help us set up our MySQL server), is that really such a big
market?

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davidw
So much for their pushing Postgresql:-(

~~~
cperciva
You can't buy an open-source project. While MySQL has (so far) distributed
their code under an open-source (well, sort of) license, they follow the
traditional "all development is done by employees who assign copyright to the
company" model. In contrast, Sun could hire a few Postgresql developers, but
there isn't any central organization which they could buy out.

Similarly, there are persistent rumours that Sun will buy RedHat; but never
any suggestion that anyone would buy Debian or FreeBSD, because the later both
lack any central corporate body.

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mhartl
MySQL is available under the GPL. Nothing sort-of about that.

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cperciva
MySQL is available under the GPL, but MySQL AB has a history of misleading
people about what the GPL license means, in order to convince people to pay
for commercial licenses which they don't need.

That's what I meant by "sort-of" -- MySQL is GPLed, but where potential
customers are concerned, they try really hard to make sure that people won't
take advantage of that fact.

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ROFISH
A Java version of MySQL + JRuby, which is almost shaping up to be faster than
mainline = Sun threatening to control the market again.

Although JRuby + JMySQL on the right VM could make easy virtualization on RoR
for companies like Dreamhost.

~~~
Tichy
What do you mean by "control the market"?

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fauigerzigerk
Wow, so who had that one on his/her 2008 predictions list? :-)

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eru
I guess the guys of <http://www.win.tue.nl/hashclash/Nostradamus/> had.

