Open Database Alliance to Save MySQL

May 16, 2009

MySQL founder Monty Widenius and the Finnish MySQL services and support company Percona have joined forces to create the Open Database Alliance. The intention of the new consortium is to protect the open source status of essential MySQL components.

Dissatisfaction with management and release policy caused Widenius to leave Sun earlier this year and form his own company, Monty Program Ab, to further develop his own storage engine (Maria). The further development of MariaDB and the work on MySQL are also the aims of the newly forged alliance. "Our goal with the Open Database Alliance is to provide a central clearinghouse for MySQL development, to encourage a true open development environment with community participation, and to ensure that MySQL code remains extremely high quality," says Widenius.

Sun's take-over by Oracle has unsettled the community, the new partners claim. The Open Database Alliance will provide a central meeting place for developers and companies, providing numerous open source services and hopefully attract a multitude of new members. Support is already being offered. Open Query, the company created by MySQL developers Arjen Lentz, Peter Lieverdink, and Zak Greant has welcomed the move. Says Lenz in his blog: "This alliance is an excellent step, showing the maturity, breadth and depth of expertise for MySQL related services!" Meanwhile, Kurt von Finck, communications officer at Monty Program AB, is appealing for new members. "Think positively. With the Oracle acquisition of Sun, doors may close. But we have just removed a wall from the side of the house. In Free and open source software, doors are for chumps," he says in his blog.

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