[Liverpool] Open war: MySQL community vs. Oracle/Sun's mobilization campaign

[Dave Love]

aidan mcguire <aidan at scraperwiki.com> writes:

> This argument is not per se about oss versus non oss -

It might be for some of us (for values of "oss" == "free software"), but
the point was that "Monty made the following call on the open source
community".

> its about  
> competition in the market for sql database software.

Ostensibly, but there seems to be enough competition anyway.  Why is it
dismissed just because it doesn't have MySQL's hype?

> Also I dont think anyone is saying "screw the deal"

I expect some people are in private, particularly in NE USA, but it's
the effects of what's happening that are the problem.  (I'm no apologist
for Oracle, obviously, and I doubt that getting people to write form
letters is a good move, though that sort of thing seems to have worked
for Microsoft in the OOXML `standard' horror story.)

People should at least think clearly about this, and the consequences of
what they're being asked to support, if not the motives of those doing
the asking.