MySQL's
essential core has been acquired by Oracle. This is yet another
warning salvo to the legions of developers out there (especially
the Open Source tribe) that write database specific applications. I
have been
warning about database specific application development myopia
for a very long time!
There is a countdown that is pretty much in motion as a result
of the latest move by Oracle. If Open Source developers want to
alleviate the inevitable despair, they will need to revisit the
issue of decoupling those MySQL specific applications via a
re-binding effort to database independent call level interfaces
such as ODBC (using iODBC or
unixODBC).
For those MySQL users that think binding to ODBC is too hard,
simply take a look at the two year old MySQL2ODBC
SDK. It will not stop you from using MySQL, it simply separates
your intellectual capital (the application logic) from the data
storage (DBMS engine). You can still use ODBC to talk to MySQL, but
you won't be locked into an inheritance tree that is susceptible to
the inevitable strategic assaults on MySQL.