07.27.10
Michael Widenius Lobby Against Oracle a Matter of Self Interest
Photo from Kolbe
Summary: How the emergence of SkySQL weakens Monty’s case against the company which bought (and continues to maintain) MySQL
“SugarCRM jumps the Open Source shark claiming closed is open and it’s the rest of us who are mistaken,” wrote Simon Phipps in Twitter. Phipps used to be the Open Source symbol of Sun Microsystems (now he is in OSI), whose employees that moved to Oracle might as well attempt to pass ‘open’ core as “Open Source” (hot subject at the moment [1, 2, 3]). Roberto Galoppini has published an opinion on ‘open’ core from Giuseppe Maxia (Oracle/MySQL), who calls it the “pragmatic freedom”. As Pamela Jones (Groklaw) put it earlier this month, “I don’t share his views, but I thought you’d like to hear from an open core defender, who also happens to work at Oracle on MySQL, as he presents what’s been jokingly called the Yuppie Nuremberg Defense (“I had to pay my mortgage, etc.”).”
“SugarCRM jumps the Open Source shark claiming closed is open and it’s the rest of us who are mistaken”
–Simon PhippsJones also points out that Michael “Monty” Widenius from MySQL (and from Microsoft’s CodePlex Foundation) had personal financial interests while lobbying against Oracle’s takeover of MySQL (he helped create SkySQL). “Another happy coincidence?”
That is what she asks anyway. “Consider the timing of the appeal of the Oracle-Sun deal by Monty before you answer,” she adds. This is an especially hard subject for us to address because Techrights uses a MySQL database. So does Groklaw for that matter. As for Phipps, his Web site uses MySQL and he refuses to talk about MySQL under Oracle (at least in FLOSS Weekly). We are grateful to Widenius for MySQL, but this project is no longer his. He sold it and made millions. █
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Needs Sunlight said,
July 28, 2010 at 4:14 am
Yuppie Nuremberg defense is “my boss made me do it”
I’m not sure what’s wrong with Monty, his behavior and statements are puzzling. “self-interest” does not seem to be the right thing to call it. It’s a complete turn about from what brought him to fame and wealth. Catspaw or even less polite but maybe more accurate terms seem more applicable.