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Databases Programming Software Businesses IT

MySQL To Be Ikea Of The Database Market 242

Posted by Zonk from the where's-the-blue-boxes dept.
Rob wrote to mention an article discussing MySQL's intent to become 'the Ikea of databases'. From the piece: "While new entrants into the open source database market, such as EnterpriseDB and Pervasive Software, have made no secret of their intentions to chase Oracle's market share, Mr Mickos said MySQL is happy to leave them to it. 'We are thankful that they are there to define the market, there is no product if you're the only vendor,' he said. "Pervasive and EnterpriseDB are going up against Oracle. We don't want to be in that space, we don't want to take the heat from Oracle. If you're working in a zoo you don't want to be the one who has to brush the teeth of the lion.'"
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MySQL To Be Ikea Of The Database Market More

MySQL To Be Ikea Of The Database Market

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  • Ikea, eh? (Score:4, Funny)

    by VitrosChemistryAnaly ( 616952 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:06AM (#13738612) Journal
    Well then where my steaming plate of Swedish meatballs? Huh? Where are they?

    And how can I deck out my house in mid-century modern MySQL? I'd like to see that.

    Pfft, yet another tease.

    • Re:Ikea, eh? (Score:5, Funny)

      by SomeoneGotMyNick ( 200685 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:22AM (#13738725) Journal
      And how can I deck out my house in mid-century modern MySQL? I'd like to see that.

      There's a large supply of tables to choose from. You even put them together yourself. Just name them Coffee, Kitchen, End, etc.

    • Ikea?

      Oh, you mean Pikea.
    • Not to mention that installation is way too easy..
    • For people that don't recognize what parent is referring to, IKEA (the one near my home anyways) has a little dining/cafeteria section, where they sell -among other foodstuffs- Swedish meatballs. They are pretty tasty.

      I suppose using the term 'steaming pile' is more commonly associated with excrement, but then again parent was going for funny. Well, now it's not that funny any more since I've had to explain the joke. Sorry!

  • Does that mean... (Score:5, Funny)

    by drunkennewfiemidget ( 712572 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:07AM (#13738613)
    That every installation comes with an Allen key and crappy instructions?
    • Not only crappy instructions, but products with minimal evidence of quality control? Database tables that wobble? I wonder what that would look like ...

      • Re:Does that mean... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Dr. Evil ( 3501 )

        I don't know how they manage Ikea in your area, but comparing MySQL to Ikea is an insult to Ikea.

        I'd describe Ikea something like this:

        Choose two:

        • Practical
        • Inexpensive
        • Attractive

        Whereas MySQL would be something like this:

        Choose three:

        • Streamlined features
        • Fast
        • Lossy

    • Re:Does that mean... (Score:4, Funny)

      by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:18AM (#13738702)
      I need tungsten to live . . . TUNGSTEN!!!!
    • oh great, now my wife is gonna start nagging me about installing mysql??
    • And hope your installation doesn't get Bork, Borked!
    • And in a couple of years you throw it out to get a real piece of furniture?

  • So Varients Will Have Nordic Names? (Score:3, Funny)

    by geoffrobinson ( 109879 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:09AM (#13738631) Homepage
    Do you want the Svansbo or the Dalsfor installation?

  • Acknowledgement? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by joshsnow ( 551754 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:10AM (#13738634) Journal
    Pervasive and EnterpriseDB are going up against Oracle. We don't want to be in that space, we don't want to take the heat from Oracle. If you're working in a zoo you don't want to be the one who has to brush the teeth of the lion.

    That should nip the "MySQL is a replacement for Oracle under all circumstances" posts that always appear whenever MySQL is discussed on slashdot. It should, but it won't.

    OIn a different note, isn't the "Ikea of databases" space already a little overcrowded? There's Firebird, McKoi, One$DB/Daffodil DB, Cloudscape, Postgres etc. Guess MySQL already pretty much own that space, so this is just a reaffirmation that they're sticking to their knitting. Doing what they do best. Very wise.

    • Re:Acknowledgement? (Score:5, Funny)

      by mmkkbb ( 816035 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:19AM (#13738708) Homepage Journal
      No NO NO!

      PostgreSQL is the Pottery Barn of the Database market.
      McKoi and Cloudscape are Pier 1 and Crate and Barrel, respectively.

      • Wal-Mart of DBs? (Score:4, Funny)

        by doublem ( 118724 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @09:13AM (#13739135) Homepage Journal
        So I guess this would make Microsoft SQL Server the Wal-Mart of Databases.

        It's the one a lot of people go to because they can't be bothered to shop around.

        (Please note, the above is intended as humor. I earn my living working with SQL Server, and happen to think it's a fine product, but there are a lot of products that use it because it's Microsoft and for no other reason.)

        Of course, all this begs the question, is Oracle the Target or the Sears of Databases?

        The Sears hardware and appliance lines make me suspect Oracle is the Sears, but Target is bigger than Sears, which would reflect Oracle's install base better.
      • No NO NO!

        PostgreSQL is the Pottery Barn of the Database market. McKoi and Cloudscape are Pier 1 and Crate and Barrel, respectively.

        What I find interesting is that you would know the difference between all those places. I know I don't. :P

    • That should nip the "MySQL is a replacement for Oracle under all circumstances" posts that always appear whenever MySQL is discussed on slashdot

      That's something of a straw man argument; I don't see sort of comments modded very high, probably because plenty of mods have had to deal with mysql in the business world, and the rest have seen enough critical commentary over the last few years to know not to drink the kool-aid.

      I saw lots of posts modded high mentioning all of MySQL's various critical flaws, as

      • That's something of a straw man argument; I don't see sort of comments modded very high, probably because plenty of mods have had to deal with mysql in the business world, and the rest have seen enough critical commentary over the last few years to know not to drink the kool-aid.

        It doesn't matter if they're not modded up (sometimes they are); they're still posted. That's not a straw man argument.

    • Re:Acknowledgement? (Score:4, Funny)

      by superid ( 46543 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:36AM (#13738814) Homepage
      Everybody makes fun of the poëpli databses....
    • Most posts I remember is when MySQL hits the wall, you're ready for replacement with Oracle, when Postgres hits the wall and you're ready for Oracle replacement, you've got three steps farther than you would have with MySQL. I suppose that changing a database is relativly easy, changing databases well is relatively hard. If your astute enough of a DBA or database programmer to do both, then you'd know that neither MySQL nor Postgres is a replacement for Oracle and vica versa.

  • Like Ikea... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by waif69 ( 322360 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:11AM (#13738641) Journal
    ...you can take it home without a big transport, you have to figure out what they mean by odd instructions and you have to perform the assembly yourself, but when you are done you can save a bundle if your time is not that valuable.
    • you can save a bundle if your time is not that valuable

      I can't speak for everything IKEA sells, but for a lot of things, the $100 (or more) I saved is more than worth the 15 minutes it took me to assemble the thing.

      Kinda like Linux. Personally, the 2 or 3 extra hours I might spend fussing with Linux is still worth the $300 saved on a Windows license.

      To most people I know, $100/hour or more is a damn good wage :)
    • And Ikea furniture tends to break if you put something too heavy on it and the drawers don't have very good runners.

      Trouble is, when Ethan Allan is priced the same as Ikea it's hard to justify Ikea, except "everybody goes to Ikea".

  • Enterprise features? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lowe0 ( 136140 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:11AM (#13738643) Homepage
    Since when are stored procedures, triggers, and views (freaking VIEWS) enterprise features? Log shipping or automatic failover are enterprise features. Procs and views are basics.
    • How about sequences? Last time I checked it wasn't even on the roadmap.

      Auto-increment is nice, but not when you have child records that you'd like to write in one transaction.
      This seems like such a trivial feature to add.

      You could create a table with just a single auto increment field and then insert null and get the last inserted id per connection, but it seems like such a hack to do so.
    • Since simple web databases (e.g. the one storing your comments) don't actually need them.
    • Since when are those things enterprise? You are obviously not remembering the days of DBASE!

      (As I curl into a fetal position thinking about re-indexing files...)

  • I would like to see a list of other database manufacturers listed with their retailer equivalents..... Seriously though, IKEA is a store full of very interesting, but not entirely useful gadgets. The Scandinavian connection seems to be about the only one I can make. mySQL has taken a less "gadgetey" approach to DB setup and maintenance. They have taken much criticism over the years for not including the Stored procedures, views, and triggers. These now all appear in version 5.0.
    • They have taken much criticism over the years for not including the Stored procedures, views, and triggers. These now all appear in version 5.0.

      Which isn't out yet.

      From the point of view of anyone who wants a stable database, having these features in a preview version that the company does not recommend for general use yet means that these features are effectively absent from the product.

      So, MySQL STILL does not have stored, procedures, views and triggers in a form that is usable.
    • "Seriously though, IKEA is a store full of very interesting, but not entirely useful gadgets."
      Interesting but not entirely useful gadgets like, hmmmmm, beds, tables, chairs, couches, wardrobes, cupboards, kitchens, plates, forks, pots and pans, curtains, mirrors, carpets...? :)
  • I've already seen a comment stating that if you follow the Ikea model, you get an allen key and crappy instructions and this is just part of an experience in which walking out costs more than you expect, the product is of questionable quality and often hard to find exactly what you are looking for.

    None of which are attributes you want in a database product.

    I think the comment is noting that Ikea is a profitable enterprise and one that is admired by the business community, but for the most part the customer
    • You know, thats kinda funny, cause none of that matches my experience with Ikea at all. The Ikea store near my home (in Houston) is very nice, well laid out, chock full of helpfull people, and tremendously family friendly - how many other furnitore stores have complete childrens play centers to drop your kids off at while you shop?

      We have some Ikea bookshelves, and the design is a little questionable, but my desk is fantastic. I had a great experience at the store itself.

      On a final, slightly flamebait not

    • People dig Scandinavian stuff. Everyone overpays for Haagen-Daas because it sounds like its a Viking snowcone or something.

      MySQL should rename itself to some trendy nordic name. Some schmuck would probably pay more for it than Oracle or DB2

  • I hope they do well (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MagicMerlin ( 576324 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:16AM (#13738686)
    I'm a PostgreSQL fanboy, but I hope these guys pull it off. A lot of poeple don't realize that what's good for one open source project is good for all of us (historical emotional baggage aside).

    The 5.0 release looks to be the biggest in the history of the database. I say good luck to them. Has anybody played around with their functions implmentations?

  • MySQL's stance on competition is like Nintendo's. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:16AM (#13738689)
    Unlike Nintendo, I think the MySQL people have a point though. You wouldn't want a $100k Oracle DB for a website that can be handled by $5k of white boxes running MySQL, just like you probably wouldn't expect a stuck-up billion dollar business to use an open source DB.
  • ... and it will be pain in the ass to set up?

  • Is that a good thing? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jurgenaut ( 910416 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:20AM (#13738716)
    I would search through benchmarks and wonder, "What kind of database defines me as a person?" We used to read pornography. Now it was debug prints. I had it all. Even the opteron optimized version that can take over 2Gb / process, but it still maxes at 4Gb due to 32bit pointers - proof it were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of wherever. I am Jack's wasted memory.

  • Foot in mouth (Score:3, Interesting)

    by PhotoGuy ( 189467 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:22AM (#13738726) Homepage
    Wow, what a dumb, dumb statement.

    With all the ground work that MySQL has made, it is starting to be seriously considered an enterprise grade system. I can just see managers using some of these quotes to show that it's really just a toy, not a real DB like "Oracle." Would have been better just to say nothing.
  • "It's realizing that simplicity does not mean a lack of sophistication," he added, noting that while some competitors might like to boast about 3,500 settable database parameters, MySQL would rather offer 35 settable parameters and hide the complexity from the end user.

    If MySQL is the Ikea of DB market, does this mean they will start using Pictograms in their read me files?
    • The problem with this mentality of course is the fact that an RDBMS server is not a word processor. IT'S A DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT. Generally, you're not going to be satisfied with only 35 knobs because you are probably doing something different enough from the next guy that you'll care about the extra knobs.
  • "Enjoy your affordable Swedish crap." - Robot from Pi-kea (4ACV04 - Less Than Hero)
    (robot limps off with one wheel missing and cabinet door hanging open)

  • "Ikea Of The Database Market" (Score:3, Funny)

    by MouseR ( 3264 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:26AM (#13738753) Homepage
    Expensive, hard to setup, crumbles after a couple of years?

  • What's going on with MySQL? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Nicopa ( 87617 ) <nico@lichtmaier.gmail@com> on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:31AM (#13738776)
    Why all these crappy slashdot posts about MySQL we have been seen lately? They speak as if MySQL where an uncontested champion in the free-software database arena. This is far from true. Many articles doesn't even mention PostreSQL. Many of them says "Now MySQL is a big player because it's got... transactions" (!).

    I think there's interest here in building up the idea that MySQL is important. There's currently no reason to use MySQL, because other products already do what it does and better.

    • Agreed. I used MySQL a few times back in the day, just because it was extremely easy to set up for extremely trivial tasks. But, IMNSHO, PostgreSQL is *the* ultimate opensource general purpose RDBMS (or O-RDBMS really). If you compare them by real-world attributes (supported features, robustness, performance, etc), PostgreSQL owns the competition, and even gives Oracle's RDBMS a good run for its money. For my purposes, this is how Oracle vs PostgreSQL stacks up right now:

      Oracle: expensive, difficult and

  • Finally a group that "gets it" (Score:3, Insightful)

    by shrapnull ( 780217 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:34AM (#13738803)
    That just proves to me that he completely understands the user space of MySQL.

    Thousands of webmasters and home-based coders don't want a competitor to Oracle, we want something that gets he job done quickly, efficiently and affordably.

    This idea that every product has to become a behemoth and compete for world domination is the stake through the heart of many a project. Being content with distributing in bulk to an extremely thankful user-base is what it's all about as far as I'm concerned with MySQL. This ensures that most open-source projects will continue to be MySQL oriented, LAMP will continue to dominate the OSS Content Management Services market, and for those that determine it's just not "good enough" for what they want to do there are plenty of alernatives to expand your feature set.

    K.I.S.S. is what MySQL has always been about, and I give the guy props for admitting they'll never have the desire nor ability to compete with Oracle.
  • The IKEA of the database market, way to overpriced and the stability is pretty much the same (aka falls apart under heavy load) The only thing missing is polish programmers and that the customer has to plug the db together them/theirselfs...

  • Ikea always makes me think of Fight Club now. (Score:4, Funny)

    by ChaseTec ( 447725 ) <chase@osdev.org> on Friday October 07, 2005 @08:55AM (#13738966) Homepage
    You are not your relational database!

  • No surprise you end up wondering where your data went !

  • And of course... (Score:5, Funny)

    by superdan2k ( 135614 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @09:13AM (#13739131) Homepage Journal
    ...there's going to be the renaming of the product with Swedish words that sound vaguely sexual in English:
    • Schloönge
    • Loob
    • Vügeena
    Ad nauseum...
  • UPDETE TEBLE SET Cuoontry = 'Sveden' VHERE Neme-a = 'Svedeesh Cheff';
  • If you're working in a zoo you don't want to be the one who has to brush the teeth of the lion.
     
    You also don't want to be the one who has to clean up after the elephants, if you know what I mean.
  • I thought IKEA was the Oracle of furniture stores.
    • I'm having a funny scene involving Neo and the kitchen staff at Ikea playing through my mind.

      Neo: It's not the one?
      Oracle: Sorry kid. You've got the right product, but you are waiting for something.
      Neo: Like what?
      Oracle: Like for this coupon to be valid. It's not good for another week.

  • How can you talk about being like Ikea and not expect to get a boatload of horrifically derivative remarks? ;-)

  • Maybe it has something to do with... (Score:3, Informative)

    by jadavis ( 473492 ) on Friday October 07, 2005 @03:13PM (#13742316)
    http://www.oracle.com/corporate/press/2005_oct/inn o.html [oracle.com]

    Perhaps MySQL is saying "We aren't competing with Oracle" because Oracle has MySQL in a difficult position. Oracle just purchased InnoBase, the makers of InnoDB. They get to "renegotiate" the terms next year. MySQL may end up having to drop the InnoDB storage engine, and transactions along with it. After all, it's Oracle's option.

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