MySQL Version 4

[Wade Chandler]

WipeOut wrote:

> Richard Welty wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 17:17:30 +0100 Leonard den Ottolander 
>> <leonard at den.ottolander.nl> wrote:
>>
>>  
>>
>>> Hi WipeOut,
>>>   
>>
>>
>>  
>>
>>>>> "2. You distribute all identifiable sections of the Derivative Work
>>>>> which are not derived from the Program"
>>>>>       
>>
>>
>>  
>>
>>>> Of course taking a single point out of the text will usually cause 
>>>> some confusion, the entire text has to be taken as a whole..
>>>>     
>>
>>
>>  
>>
>>> I do understand that MySQL AB wants you to buy a license if you want 
>>> to distribute your program with mysql (server/client) without 
>>> releasing it
>>> under an open source license.
>>>   
>>
>>
>> i was under the impression that their claim was broader than just
>> based on including MySQL 4.x in a distribution. i was given to
>> understand that they made this claim for anything that linked against
>> MySQL. please correct me if i'm wrong, as there is a substantial
>> difference between the two possible states of affairs.
>>
>> richard
>>  
>>
> The way I understand it..
> If you want to distribute an app as a closed source then you need a 
> license to use any of the MySQL client libs or code..
> If your app is GPL or one of the now accepted open source licenses then 
> you do not need a license..
> 
>  From what I can see MySQL 4.x client and server can be included in any 
> GPL distribution, for example Trustix (www.trustix.org) ships with MySQL 
> 4 as part of the distro..
> 
> There is probably somthing in Fedora that builds against the MySQL 
> client libs that is not GPL which may be why it was not included, now 
> that they have allowed a number of other open source licenses this may 
> no longer be an issue in which case MySQL 4 could be included..
> 
> Later..
> 
> 
> 
> 
If your program is not full GPL, not LGPL, but GPL, and full GPL then 
you have to have commercial licenses to distribute MySQL.  This applies 
to clients, classic, and max.  I wrote MySQL about this issue not too 
long ago, and we decided not to use it for some of our software.

MySQL is just far too expensive to use in a closed source single user 
system.  Even with selling thousands of copies of the software they 
wanted something around $100.00+ US per copy of our software.  That is 
steep even compared to Sybase, Oracle, or Microsoft runtime engines. 
Actually it is much steeper.  However, it depends on your application. 
If you need a full blown server it is much cheeper than other 
alternatives...except for Firebird DBMS.

So, it depends on your application.  If you need a server, the price is 
not bad at all.  Reallllly nice.  If you need it as a database engine 
for a small single to a few user application, then you just can not 
afford to use MySQL unless you are going to have a full GPL software 
package.

Sometimes you get in a market where you can't open source 
everything...not unless you want to go out of business because the 
competition will take what you spent all your money and time on and then 
spend the same amount of money to out do you.  Such as life.  If you 
want a really nice, really stable DB server which  you can use 
commercially devoid of such prices try out www.firebirdsql.org.  That is 
if you don't need ODBC.  Though there are some commercial ODBC drivers.

Wade