Google supports MariaDB (opens in new tab)

(theregister.co.uk)

88 pointsGravityWell12y ago32 comments

32 comments

27 comments · 10 top-level

gonvaled12y ago· 6 in thread

Can somebodody comment on this?

  > I'd have added one thing to the licence: that this
  > licence is GPL but after three years it reverts to BSD,
  > then Oracle wouldn’t have bought Sun because we’d be free
  > within three years and MySQL would be BSD and nobody
  > could take that away

What is the problem with the GPL in this case? That changes / additions must be given to Oracle?

pessimizer12y ago

I think it's somebody who doesn't like GPL and does like BSD using too many words. With BSD, you can incorporate it into your closed source code or add closed source code to it. It becomes free as in beer.

annnnd12y ago

If you want to link your proprietary software to GPL-ed MySQL, you can't. They used to sell (expensive) licenses if you wanted to do that.

I know because I wanted to use it this way and was forced to use SQLite instead (which performed nicely btw).

I am not sure how MariaDB solves these issues though? Because they will have to stay on GPL forever if I understand correctly.

justincormack12y ago

The only thing you need to link to is the client library, as talking to the database over a socket is not linking. I believe there are non GPL client libraries now for many languages.

yxhuvud12y ago

One thing they have done is to create a LGPLd client library.

hannibal512y ago

MySQL was developed buy MySQL AB and they owned copyrights to the code. They provided dual licensing option, GPL and commercial licence. It made sense for Oracle to buy the company because they were only ones who could sell commercial licensees. Under BSD that would have not been possible.

If the licence would have been 3 years of GPL, then BSD, Oracle would have bought only three years monopoly to sell commercial licensees to the software. After that, owning the copyright would be mostly meaningless.

Monty Program Ab (company developing MariaDB) is now restricted to GPL/LGPL fork of the MySQL (that's what MariaDB is) they are not able to sell closed source versions.

Personally, I don't see problem with this. I guess it just limits the money making abilities of Monty Program Ab.

sciurus12y ago

It feels like Monty wants to be able to have his cake (the money he made from selling MySQL to Sun) and eat it too (continue to make money selling some sort of MySQL license). If MySQL was BSD-licensed instead of GPL, presumably he'd be able to pursue an "open-core" model where he could sell proprietary extensions to MySQL.

http://ostatic.com/blog/oracle-mysql-and-the-gpl-dont-take-m...

ergo1412y ago· 5 in thread

I would rather be more happy to see them support Postgresql, especially in app engine.

GravityWellOP12y ago

I'm not sure why MySQL seems to have received more attention over the years. PostgreSQL might be more robust.

One point about PostgreSQL that bothered me was the apparent lack of case insensitive collation. Where SQL Server, Oracle, and MySQL default to case insensitive, PostgreSQL defaults to case sensitive, and there was no built in way to change this, so you have to do things like "WHERE LOWER(namecol) = 'jdoe'" to work around it. At least that was the situation last time I checked.

awj12y ago

For a long time MySQL was easier to get started with, and the integration with PHP made it a popular choice on shared hosting services. A lot of developers cut their teeth on MySQL, many haven't felt the need to seek out alternatives.

2 more replies

icebraining12y ago

There's citext[1] for the case sensitivity problem.

[1] http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/citext.html

annnnd12y ago

Because at some point in time mySQL was widely installed with all providers, and PostgreSQL wasn't. I guess it was just a bit sooner adoption-ready, and that counted.

1 more reply

dougabug12y ago

Oracle is case sensitive by default.

jt219012y ago· 3 in thread

tl;dr

  > [Google] has sent an [unnamed] engineer to the MariaDB
  > Foundation... Asked [what they get], Google declined to 
  > comment.

DannyBee12y ago

In return, Google gets 3 first round draft picks and an engineer to be named later.

(Seriously though, this whole article is summed up by your sentence, the rest is filler)

MetaCosm12y ago

Half Life 3 confirmed?

untog12y ago

This isn't Reddit

jrochkind112y ago· 2 in thread

What the heck is the 'chocolate factory'?

rtehfm12y ago

Apparently it's a nickname for Google.

http://wikibin.org/articles/mountain-view-chocolate-factory....

tortillasauce12y ago

I guess they are referring to Google as The Chocolate Factory from Charley and The Chocolate Factory.

RRRA12y ago· 1 in thread

BSD is NOT Copyleft... this article is terrible :P

andrewflnr12y ago

  BSD is a permissive copy-left licence that allows you to do anything to code
  ... of huge significant ...
  "You can repeat MySQL with MariaDB." (Speaking on compatibility. Did Widenius actually say that?)

Just beautiful. :D Also, considering both Oracle and Google are currently headed by "Larry"s, I wish that if they want to shorten Larry Ellison's name, they would consistently shorten it to "Ellison", rather than "Larry" as they do a couple times.

GravityWellOP12y ago

Hopefully MariaDB can incorporate SQL window functions:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/tutorial-window.ht...

These have been part of PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, etc for quite a while and still absent from MariaDB/MySQL.

devnetfx12y ago

Wonder when will GoSQL appear from Google?

kabell12y ago

Another possibly relevant fact in this matter is that the Android/Java lawsuit certainly didn't help the Oracle/Google relationship...

james2vegas12y ago

Maybe they can fix MariaDB to use something other than ucontext (which is no longer part of POSIX) or i386/x86-64 only asssembly for co-routines.

But they probably won't since this is Google, and it "works just fine on Linux"

at-fates-hands12y ago

It looks like MariaDB is getting some good run lately. I just installed Fedora 19 on one of my older boxes and they decided to have MariaDB as the default DB.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

32 comments

27 comments · 10 top-level

gonvaled12y ago· 6 in thread

Can somebodody comment on this?

  > I'd have added one thing to the licence: that this
  > licence is GPL but after three years it reverts to BSD,
  > then Oracle wouldn’t have bought Sun because we’d be free
  > within three years and MySQL would be BSD and nobody
  > could take that away

What is the problem with the GPL in this case? That changes / additions must be given to Oracle?

pessimizer12y ago

annnnd12y ago

If you want to link your proprietary software to GPL-ed MySQL, you can't. They used to sell (expensive) licenses if you wanted to do that.

I know because I wanted to use it this way and was forced to use SQLite instead (which performed nicely btw).

I am not sure how MariaDB solves these issues though? Because they will have to stay on GPL forever if I understand correctly.

justincormack12y ago

The only thing you need to link to is the client library, as talking to the database over a socket is not linking. I believe there are non GPL client libraries now for many languages.

yxhuvud12y ago

One thing they have done is to create a LGPLd client library.

hannibal512y ago

Monty Program Ab (company developing MariaDB) is now restricted to GPL/LGPL fork of the MySQL (that's what MariaDB is) they are not able to sell closed source versions.

Personally, I don't see problem with this. I guess it just limits the money making abilities of Monty Program Ab.

sciurus12y ago

http://ostatic.com/blog/oracle-mysql-and-the-gpl-dont-take-m...

ergo1412y ago· 5 in thread

I would rather be more happy to see them support Postgresql, especially in app engine.

GravityWellOP12y ago

I'm not sure why MySQL seems to have received more attention over the years. PostgreSQL might be more robust.

awj12y ago

2 more replies

icebraining12y ago

There's citext[1] for the case sensitivity problem.

[1] http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/citext.html

annnnd12y ago

Because at some point in time mySQL was widely installed with all providers, and PostgreSQL wasn't. I guess it was just a bit sooner adoption-ready, and that counted.

1 more reply

dougabug12y ago

Oracle is case sensitive by default.

jt219012y ago· 3 in thread

tl;dr

  > [Google] has sent an [unnamed] engineer to the MariaDB
  > Foundation... Asked [what they get], Google declined to 
  > comment.

DannyBee12y ago

In return, Google gets 3 first round draft picks and an engineer to be named later.

(Seriously though, this whole article is summed up by your sentence, the rest is filler)

MetaCosm12y ago

Half Life 3 confirmed?

untog12y ago

This isn't Reddit

jrochkind112y ago· 2 in thread

What the heck is the 'chocolate factory'?

rtehfm12y ago

Apparently it's a nickname for Google.

http://wikibin.org/articles/mountain-view-chocolate-factory....

tortillasauce12y ago

I guess they are referring to Google as The Chocolate Factory from Charley and The Chocolate Factory.

RRRA12y ago· 1 in thread

BSD is NOT Copyleft... this article is terrible :P

andrewflnr12y ago

  BSD is a permissive copy-left licence that allows you to do anything to code
  ... of huge significant ...
  "You can repeat MySQL with MariaDB." (Speaking on compatibility. Did Widenius actually say that?)

GravityWellOP12y ago

Hopefully MariaDB can incorporate SQL window functions:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.1/static/tutorial-window.ht...

These have been part of PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, etc for quite a while and still absent from MariaDB/MySQL.

devnetfx12y ago

Wonder when will GoSQL appear from Google?

kabell12y ago

Another possibly relevant fact in this matter is that the Android/Java lawsuit certainly didn't help the Oracle/Google relationship...

james2vegas12y ago

Maybe they can fix MariaDB to use something other than ucontext (which is no longer part of POSIX) or i386/x86-64 only asssembly for co-routines.

But they probably won't since this is Google, and it "works just fine on Linux"

at-fates-hands12y ago

It looks like MariaDB is getting some good run lately. I just installed Fedora 19 on one of my older boxes and they decided to have MariaDB as the default DB.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse