Will MySQL remain open...if it's "open" now?

The MySQL database is considered one of open source software's "big four" -- the "M" in "LAMP," which also includes Linux, the Apache Web server, and the PHP language. While the exact installed base of all versions of MySQL, including commercial and non-commercial editions, is perhaps impossible to accurately estimate, its phenomenal growth has been impossible to ignore.

Prior to an analysts' conference scheduled for this morning, there was no word from Sun with regards to how it intends to handle MySQL's unusual, and recently controversial, implementation of the common open source licensing agreements.

Historically, MySQL has employed dual licensing tiers, where implementers could receive and then freely distribute the DBMS themselves for no fee. But if they made any alterations to MySQL, implementers are obligated to freely share those changes not only with others to whom they distribute code, but to MySQL directly as well.

Alternately, companies could purchase a commercial implementation of MySQL for a cost-competitive rate, often only a few hundred dollars per seat.

But last August, MySQL decided to close off the source code for its commercial versions, in a move which some felt would split the DBMS' development efforts into two tiers: a conventional commercial-grade team, and an open source team who may not be guaranteed the benefits of what the commercial team dreams up. In fact, some believed, they could be withheld those benefits by design.

However, there were a few analysts who noted the possibility that MySQL's firming up of its commercial licenses could have been to make it a more attractive takeover target. The company has long been expected to file an initial public offering for stock, and some anticipated it might do so even this month.

In February 2006, MySQL CEO Mickos publicly announced his company's formal rebuffing of a takeover offer from Oracle, the offered price for which was never revealed. Then the following January, Mickos acknowledged he was preparing his company for an IPO, although those preparations were said to have extended on through the previous holidays. Now the question is basically moot.

The news for Sun added some spice to today's quarterly earnings announcement, which revealed that for its last fiscal quarter, revenues were just better than flat on the year at $3.6 billion, with gross margins just marginally higher at 48%.