Monty Widenius, the creator of MySQL, makes this plea to help save MySQL from falling under the control of Oracle, an event which is looking increasingly bad for MySQL should it come to pass.
My letter to the EC:
I am opposed to the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle. This is partially, but not entirely, because Sun currently owns MySQL, one of the two preeminent open-source database engines, and I firmly believe that Oracle gaining control of MySQL would be a conflict of interest that would threaten the future of MySQL. MySQL has become a very capable database which threatens the low end of Oracle's market for its eponymous flagship product. I question Oracle's dedication to maintaining the Solaris operating system, but more importantly, I suspect that one of Oracle's major motivations for acquiring Sun may be to eliminate MySQL as a competitor for the low end of its business.
Oracle's record following its acquisition of InnoDB show the likely future of an acquisition of MySQL by Oracle:
InnoDB bugs have been fixed by Oracle only when required by contractual obligation
New features announced before the acquisition have been delayed by as much as three years
The open-source community has been excluded from continuing InnoDB development
Patches that would have improved InnoDB performance have been neglected
Oracle proprietized InnoDB into a closed-source product, InnoDB+, forcing Sun to fork InnoDB just to be able to apply performance patches and bug fixes
MySQL's fate is likely to be no better. The probable future of MySQL if Oracle is allowed to buy Sun is that it will either be proprietized into a closed-source "Oracle Lite" commercial product like InnoDB+, or killed altogether. For Oracle to gain control of MySQL would allow Oracle to strengthen its position in the database market into a near monopoly, leaving PostgreSQL as the only remaining enterprise-capable open-source database engine. Thus I see an acquisition of Sun by Oracle as directly anti-competitive. My concerns over this possibility are only made worse by Oracle's recent "astroturfing" among its large corporate customers, who do not use MySQL and would be unaffected by the acquisition, urging them to send letters in complete support of the acquisition.
It is my feeling that if Oracle is allowed to acquire Sun Microsystems, it should only be upon condition either — at minimum — that Oracle make strict guarantees to maintain the open-source status of both MySQL and OpenSolaris, keep them in active development, and generally not treat them as "red-headed stepchildren"; or, better, Oracle should be be required to divest itself of MySQL — NOT terminate MySQL — and transfer it to another entity that will maintain it properly and maintain its open-source status, as well as guaranteeing the future of the OpenSolaris foundation.