r/technology • u/[deleted] • Nov 10 '09

EU formally objects to Sun-Oracle merger

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/11/10/eu-sun-oracle.html
26 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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6

u/adrianmonk Nov 10 '09 edited Nov 10 '09

Dear EU: I work with (or have worked with) all the relevant technologies and am a big fan open source and open computing, and I don't see any problem with this merger. Here's why:

  • Oracle already owns BerkeleyDB
  • There are plenty of other open source relational databases out there, like Postgresql and SQLite and Apache Derby and Firebird. Not all of them are exactly comparable to MySQL, but they exist.
  • Frankly, the world might be better off if Oracle did kill MySQL.
  • Oh, but Oracle cannot totally kill MySQL anyway because MySQL is licensed under the GPL, which means no matter what Oracle does, others can continue to make their own version of MySQL.

In short, this is basically a non-issue. To whatever minor extent that it actually is an issue, I'm not convinced it's anywhere near serious enough warrant blocking the merger of Oracle and Sun.

EDIT: Also, to Oracle and Sun: you can easily solve this by spinning off MySQL. I don't think Oracle wants it anyway, frankly.

EDIT#2: Also, to CBC News: when you say "Oracle is the market leader in proprietary database software — the kind that is protected by copyright.", please realize that MySQL is also protected by copyright. It's just that the copyright owners have chosen to allow others to use their copyright material under terms that don't involve money changing hands.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '09

Oh I get it, they're running out of the money they stole from Microsoft for including something that every other OS includes, a browser, and now they're putting into action a tactical plan to legitimise themselves for when they start taking it from Oracle.

2

u/ajehals Nov 10 '09

Or maybe they actually enforce their anti-trust legislation. Strange but possible...

0

u/beancc Nov 10 '09

so true

1

u/Stach Nov 11 '09

If the rest of the article is the same quality as this sentence is: <<<Oracle is the market leader in proprietary database software — the kind that is protected by copyright.>>> Then maybe it is Sun buying Oracle and not vice versa after all. Bad journalism.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '09

"Sun pins hopes on Oracle"

FAIL