Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Databases Programming Software Sun Microsystems IT

David Axmark Resigns From Sun 229

An anonymous reader writes "From Kay Arno's blog we see that David Axmark, MySQL's Co-Founder, has resigned. This comes on top of the maybe, maybe not, resignation of Monty. We saw earlier this year that Brian Aker, the Director of Architecture, has forked the server to create a web-focused database from MySQL called Drizzle. The MySQL server has been 'RC' now for a year with hundreds of bugs still listed as being active in the 5.1 version. What is going on with MySQL?"
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

David Axmark Resigns From Sun

Comments Filter:
  • by aqui ( 472334 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @07:44PM (#25307315)

    It allows for disagreements to be resolved by disagreeing, even when there are corporations with lots of lawyers involved.

    You can still fork it. No easy corporate lock down is possible.

    • by vandan ( 151516 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @09:41PM (#25308241) Homepage

      Theoretically, yes you can fork the code. But there are broader issues than the legal ability to fork.

      This has put a huge question-mark over MySQL's long-term viability. For a fork to be viable, you need a critical mass of developers. But we've seen 2 key ( founding ) developers leave, and Oracle buy InnoDB.

      If Sun bought MySQL to further the project, then where is the evidence that this is happening?

      If Oracle bought InnoDB to further the project, then where is the evidence that this is happening?

      Of course you could argue that neither company is obliged to do anything. But alternatively you could argue that both companies have behaved in an explicitly anti-competitive way. This is itself is of course no surprise to anyone other than the US justice department.

      • by Calinous ( 985536 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @11:20PM (#25308913)

        Does Sun have a competitive database? I ask because I don't know of any

        • by SiggyTheViking ( 890997 ) on Thursday October 09, 2008 @12:21AM (#25309287)
          Well, there is this [sun.com].
        • Derby (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Kupfernigk ( 1190345 ) on Thursday October 09, 2008 @03:49AM (#25310533)
          Sun doesn't, but if you live in the Java world have you looked at Derby [apache.org] recently? We started out using it as an authentication database embedded in an app, and are now making more and more use of it. It supports transactions and hundreds of simultaneous connections, has very flexible configuration, and supports up to about 50Gbytes of storage. The last alone makes it more useful in many applications than the free versions of MS SQL Server. There are many applications currently running on MySQL which (in my opinion) would benefit from migrating to a tightly coupled all-Java solution. The Derby footprint is tiny, database backup and failover is now supported, and you can work with anything from the command line tool to the usual studio type applications. It has taken me 4 years to become a convert, after 8 years of MySQL, but now in the latest release I love it.
        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by TheRaven64 ( 641858 )

          Sun have offered support for PostgreSQL for a few years now. The version of PostgreSQL they ship has a number of Solaris-specific tweaks that integrate with their other buzzwords.

          With regard to MySQL, forking is difficult. MySQL is GPL'd, including the client library. This means that any application that uses it (by linking against the client library) must be GPL'd, or must by a proprietary license (previously from MySQL AB, now from Sun). Postgres, on the other hand, is BSD licensed, meaning you can

      • I guess it's the natural progression of things. Products die, OSS projects die. If there's a gap; a need for software that doesn't exist and is very important to the community, it will be created or an old project will be resurrected.

        There is money in OSS. A lot of the big or important OSS projects have been able to bring in a good deal of money (I mean, look at mySQL, those guys made a small fortune from it) so I have no doubt that if mySQL dies out and there's no equivalent alternative (but there is

      • by SgtChaireBourne ( 457691 ) on Thursday October 09, 2008 @02:22AM (#25310089) Homepage

        ...

        If Sun bought MySQL to further the project, then where is the evidence that this is happening?

        If Oracle bought InnoDB to further the project, then where is the evidence that this is happening?

        ...

        Oracle also took down Berkeley DB. It's still there but buried rather deeply. If Oracle is contributing to BerkeleyDB, then now is a good time to be vocal about it and collect some good karma.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by FatherOfONe ( 515801 )

        Your post seems to think that Oracle and Sun teamed up to kill MySQL. You want proof that Sun has done something to help MySQL along since it bought it.

        My "Proof" is comes from that of a Java developer, one that uses almost all Sun tools (Netbeans, Glassfish, EJB3, WebServices and would consider Sun hardware if we could). The freaking day Sun "bought" the company that sold support for MySQL they started to push it as "their" default database of choice. Within a few days they had tutorials up on how to int

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why fork it? Just let it die.

      There is a serious, open source, Object Relational DBMS [postgresql.org] available.

  • How long... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by russlar ( 1122455 )
    How long until Netcraft confirms that Sun is dieing?
  • Huh ... (Score:2, Funny)

    by ScrewMaster ( 602015 ) *

    David Axmark Resigns From Sun

    So, he gets the ax because somebody missed the mark.

  • Drizzle? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Joe U ( 443617 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @08:17PM (#25307559) Homepage Journal

    Has anyone here used Drizzle?

    I'm about to start a new web project and I get to choose the DB. I'm concerned over the lack of stored procedures though. My last big project used SP's for everything and honestly, while initial coding was a pain, in the long run it was a huge benifit.

    I need a lean and mean webDB, so, if not Drizzle, does anyone have other recommendations?

    • Re:Drizzle? (Score:5, Informative)

      by krow ( 129804 ) * <brian@@@tangent...org> on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @09:28PM (#25308155) Homepage Journal

      Hi!

      We are still working on the first version of Drizzle. While folks are using it, I don't really recommend it at this point. When we feel like it is ready for adoption we will publicly start recommending it.

      Cheers,
            -Brian

    • why is a post about a DBMS forked from MySQL, and mentioned right in the summary, being modded Offtopic?

      personally, i hadn't heard of Drizzle until today. i'm pretty curious about what others think of it too if anyone has experience with it.

    • by asc99c ( 938635 )

      Have you considered Firebird [firebirdsql.org]? I was recently introduced to it and it looks like a better option than MySQL / Drizzle.

      The other obvious option is PostgresSQL, which looks fairly comparable to Firebird - the only reason I'm going with Firebird is that I can reliably remember how to pronounce it!

    • Faster, more scalable, richer, more stable, more standards-conformant, more free.
  • by bcolflesh ( 710514 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @09:15PM (#25308043) Homepage

    http://www.jpipes.com/index.php?/archives/263-So-Long,-and-Thanks-for-all-the-Fish.html [jpipes.com]

    Interesting comment at the bottom (#11):

    "Glad to hear you'll be working full-time on Drizzle. Even if you didn't escape Sun.

    I can't imagine who would want to be a community manager under the current situation, though. Good luck to Giuseppe."

  • by Metroid72 ( 654017 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @09:17PM (#25308079)

    David, don't quit in this market.
    Unemployment is rampant and you'll likely be lowballed for your new job.

  • MySQL greetings (Score:5, Informative)

    by martenmickos ( 467191 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @10:08PM (#25308419)

    Thanks slashdotters for being passionate about all topics FOSS and MySQL!

    David's departure is in all ways amicable, and he will continue to be an ambassador for MySQL and for free and open source software in general. For some time already, David was working only part-time for MySQL. After about 25 years of working on MySQL and the projects that preceded MySQL, he very much deserves do whatever he pleases to.

    Marten
    SVP Database Group at Sun
    (previously CEO of MySQL AB)

    • Re:MySQL greetings (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Atlantis-Rising ( 857278 ) on Wednesday October 08, 2008 @11:54PM (#25309099) Homepage

      Would you say otherwise if it wasn't amicable?

      • Re:MySQL greetings (Score:5, Informative)

        by martenmickos ( 467191 ) on Thursday October 09, 2008 @01:12AM (#25309631)

        I think if you ask people who know me, they will say that I stand for transparency and truthfulness.

        If the departure had not been amicable, I guess I would not have commented on it at all, or I would have focused my commentary on whatever other positive aspect I could find.

        But the best may be to ask David directly. I don't want to publish his email address here, but it is not difficult to guess. Most early employees of MySQL AB, like myself, use firstname at mysql dot com.

        Marten

        P.S. Generally I am somewhat perplexed by the attention this topic is getting. The beauty of open source is that you can be actively contributing and participating in your favourite project whether you are employed by a certain company or not. So what's the big deal about David choosing not to be employed? He is not abandoning MySQL. With the enormous payout from the acquisition, the founders can now allow themselves to pursue whatever interests and daily routines they like. Good for them, and I think we should all just be happy that open source can provide not just software freedom but also financial freedom. Just my 2c.

        • Keep up the good work, MySQL is excellent.
        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by maestroX ( 1061960 )

          Generally I am somewhat perplexed by the attention this topic is getting. The beauty of open source is that you can be actively contributing and participating in your favourite project whether you are employed by a certain company or not. So what's the big deal about David choosing not to be employed? He is not abandoning MySQL. (..) Just my 2c.

          Your cents are worth it :-)

          Who has contributed or donated to the MySQL project while actively using MySQL in a production environment?

          I am somewhat perplexed b

      • Re:MySQL greetings (Score:5, Informative)

        by krow ( 129804 ) * <brian@@@tangent...org> on Thursday October 09, 2008 @02:27AM (#25310109) Homepage Journal

        If you look around there are couple of articles that quote David on why he is leaving. It is perfectly amicable, he just dislikes paperwork and would prefer to not deal with it.

              -Brian

    • I would rather expect "an ambassador" for MySQL to be saying that kind of thing in here himself, if he agrees with your appraisal of the situation.

  • David Axmark (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 09, 2008 @01:31AM (#25309745)

    Lots of press about a not to large event. I have been working less with MySQL over the past several years (as the company has grown). And when we got acquired we got to big for me (I like to know everyone in a company).

    A huge part of my work have been spreading FreeSoftware/OpenSource and I will continue to do that. And tell about the MySQL story many times more hoping to inspire others to try to start FLOSS businesses.

    And I hope to meet many of all the people who made MySQL such a sucess many times over the coming years. /David (who posts so seldom he does not remember his slash login/password..)

     

  • What's the big deal? One developer leaves the MySQL team, after MySQL has been bought by Sun. Ok. The two may or may not be related. And it may or may not indicate that something is making the developers unhappy.

    MySQL has hundreds of bugs open against the upcoming release. Ok. Is that a lot? It does sound like it. On the other hand, it's hard to say what this means for quality. It means all these bugs have been _found_, which is good. Now they just need to be fixed.

    In the meantime, existing versions of MySQ

  • including mine. unbelievable amounts of client sites use mysql, all web development clients use mysql, there is a HUGE market for php/mysql out there (bigger than anything similar i assure you), hell, even a goodly percentage of web runs on mysql ....

    rest assured if anything happens to mysql, ill come there with a thick stick in my hand.

The Tao is like a glob pattern: used but never used up. It is like the extern void: filled with infinite possibilities.

Working...