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Sun Micro to Buy MySQL, Maker of Open-Source Database
WSJ ^ | 16 January 2008 | Andrew Edwards

Posted on 01/16/2008 7:16:06 AM PST by Fractal Trader

Sun Microsystems Inc. has agreed to buy open-source software maker MySQL AB for $1 billion, and said its fiscal second-quarter net income nearly doubled on boosted margins, according to preliminary results.

Sun is paying $800 million in cash and assuming $200 million in options to acquire MySQL. The Swedish company makes open-source database software used by companies such as online search leader Google Inc., social-networking ...

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


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To: Dubya-M-Dees
Oh! So it's a Profit Thing
21 posted on 01/16/2008 8:35:01 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: rdb3; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; GodGunsandGuts; CyberCowboy777; Salo; Bobsat; JosephW; ...

22 posted on 01/16/2008 8:11:32 PM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce
Don't know what to think about this one, ShadowAce.


23 posted on 01/16/2008 8:47:00 PM PST by rdb3 (There's no place like 127.0.0.1)
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To: rdb3

MySQL has been hanging out there to be picked up for a while. But Sun? I was hoping for Canonical to buy them, but $1 Billion would be way to steep for them, as well as for RedHat.


24 posted on 01/17/2008 12:03:46 AM PST by neb52 (Quid agis, Medice?)
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To: rdb3

I know. On one hand, they’ll get some cash, on the other....


25 posted on 01/17/2008 5:30:45 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Fractal Trader
How do they plant to get the $1 billion back on an open source product?

It's dual-license with free and paid versions. Use it at home, run a web server, etc., and it's free, but with the conditions of the GPL. But you can pay for it and not have to worry about the derivative work provisions of the GPL when bundling it with your software. Then there's also the enterprise support.

26 posted on 01/17/2008 5:51:21 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Fractal Trader

Aww crap there goes a perfectly good mid tier database... Sun will bury this thing under so much Java Ill have to get my postgre books out..


27 posted on 01/17/2008 7:04:18 AM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: COBOL2Java
Didn’t see this one coming. OTOH, I think the future is in open source, so this makes sense. Can they compete with the Oracle monster? Time will tell.

To compete with Oracle, you need to sell to big business. You can certainly make a good living selling to single users and smaller organizations, but this isn't Oracle's arena. The problem with MySQL is that it is not geared towards this kind of use. It is geared toward small to mid range systems with relatively simple needs (which does NOT mean that it cannot be scaled; Google scales a modified MySQL running on InnoDB storage engines, but Google is Google). Frankly, if I were gunning for Oracle, I would either try to see if I could get Postgres and speed it up or start from scratch. I just have a hard time picturing a SMJ (Solaris, MySQL and Java/JSP) or even LMJ (Linux, MySQL, and Java) becoming the next "big thing" in the IT world--and you know that Sun will try to push THEIR DBMS coupled with Java.

28 posted on 01/19/2008 1:30:22 PM PST by Señor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
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To: dfwgator
“Give away the razors, sell the blades.”

A failed business model from the past.

29 posted on 01/19/2008 7:24:50 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
A failed business model from the past.

You do realize that this model is basically the one used by companies who make printers, right? The printers themselves are sold pretty cheap and the price of ink is gouged up. The only difference is precisely how little the razors are "given away" for.

30 posted on 01/20/2008 8:46:47 AM PST by Señor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
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To: Señor Zorro

Printers aren’t “given away” either, at least not at any stores I’ve ever been in. If you have evidence of any printers being given away for free then link them, otherwise admit you’re making a false claim.


31 posted on 01/23/2008 8:00:11 AM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle

Ah, yes the old “I didn’t like what you said, so I just tweaked it a little” trick. I didn’t say that the printers were being given away for free, I said they were based on the same business model: make the original readily accessible and gouge up on the “refills”. Read my post, word for word, without your GE-colored glasses on and you even see that I was careful NOT to say that the printers weren’t being given away for free (just really cheap). Or else, what in the heck is this phrase doing there “The only difference is precisely how little the razors are “given away” for.” ?


32 posted on 01/23/2008 7:35:43 PM PST by Señor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
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To: Señor Zorro

I’m not the one playing tricks of course, I’ve once again simply exposed free software advocates claiming false analogies exist in their attempt to defend “copyleftist” theories. Neither razors or printers are given away for free, by anyone, and any attempted claims they are remain completely false.


33 posted on 01/23/2008 11:01:24 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle; Señor Zorro; ShadowAce
Yes ladies and gentlemen you to can get your GE Xray specs!

With this amazing product you can turn:

"The printers themselves are sold pretty cheap"

Into:

"If you have evidence of any printers being given away for free"

And if you act now well send you these ignorance pills so you actually believe the tripe... Complete obtuseness not included may cause dizziness and symptoms similar to lead poisoning..

34 posted on 01/24/2008 12:29:25 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: N3WBI3

Razors aren’t given away for free and neither are printers. Any attempts to defend copyLEFT principles on such bogus analogies have failed yet again, despite the constant attempts by some to ressurect them.


35 posted on 01/25/2008 6:50:20 AM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
You must be wearing your specs... nobody ever said printers were given away for free...

And as for razors:

Of course if you want more blades you are going to have to buy them:


36 posted on 01/25/2008 8:00:35 AM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: N3WBI3

That’s a sample, not a supply. A razor, not razorS. Stupid move by Sun, they paid a billion but could have cloned it for free like Oracle does RedHat. That’s the supposed beauty of open source anyway, the right to make free copies.


37 posted on 01/25/2008 3:46:57 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle

The difference being? I can get a free razor but if I want blades I want to buy them...

But hey at least you stopped trying to rewrite history with the whole printer thing... The ceasing of repeating a lie is the closet you come to admitting a mistake..


38 posted on 01/25/2008 5:01:41 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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To: N3WBI3

I haven’t made any mistakes, those attempting bogus analogies as a defense for Sun’s ignorant purchase are the ones who are lost. Sun should have just made perfect copies for free, that’s what most users of MySQL do and that won’t be changing just because Sun wasted a billion on the hope they’ll suddenly start paying for the right.


39 posted on 01/25/2008 7:44:41 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
I haven’t made any mistakes

Ok so if someone says they sell printers cheap and you they said 'give away printers' that could be a mistake and I gave you the benefit of the doubt. But you just admitted you did it on purpose, thats called lying..

40 posted on 01/25/2008 8:04:55 PM PST by N3WBI3 (Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari)
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