Sun completes takeover of MySQL

Sun Microsystems has announced the completion of its $1 billion takeover of MySQL.

You can read the official details in this February 26 news release and get the take of Sun’s CEO on his blog. Jonathan Schwartz dismisses those who would predict the demise of the open-source model for MySQL. “One reason the integration of Sun and MySQL has gone so smoothly is our development and business models are nearly identical,” he writes. “We both invest in very high quality free software and the cultivation of large communities, then turn our efforts to monetize at the point of value for companies that want commercial support. We’re peas in a pod.”

MySQL is database server that has been growing in popularity among CAR power users both because it’s free, and because of its enormous power. We used it at The Hamilton Spectator to crunch the 12 million record Ontario Drive Clean database, and it never suffered so much as a hiccup. That was four years ago, and the software has only become better since. It will be fascinating to watch how MySQL develops in the Sun universe. You can download MySQL from www.mysql.com.