WhoseSQL?

» NYT: Open Source as a Model for Business Is Elusive (Ashlee Vance)

A sign of the times? Or trend-spotting, plain & simple? Emphasis mine ...

In many ways, MySQL embodies the ideals of the populist software movement known as open source, in which a program's creator releases it to the world free of charge, and legions of volunteers contribute improvements that are also freely shared.

...

But like most open-source companies, MySQL's sales, tied to support deals, never matched the astronomical number of downloads for its product, about 60,000 a day. In January 2008, the founders decided to sell the company for $1 billion to Sun Microsystems. And this year, Sun agreed to sell itself to Oracle, which makes database software aimed at larger companies and tougher jobs, for $7.4 billion.

Now, disagreement over the value of MySQL -- both as a stand-alone entity and as part of a big company -- lies at the heart of a bitter public battle between Oracle and the European Union over the Sun acquisition. The fight illuminates a larger truth about open-source companies: their societal and strategic importance far exceeds their financial value as operating businesses.

You can probably draw several different trajectories for what this means for the future of open-source software. Does it become the domain of non-profit foundations? ... a side project by big tech firms? ... forever the domain of private coders? ... or does a National Endowment of Technology evolve to ensure the sustainability of open-source projects?

I won't suggest a favorite of the bunch, but I do find an interesting parallel to the way in which mainstream media has suffered in part because of news essentially becoming "open-sourced." Interesting because the response in the tech field is vastly at odds with the response seen in the media industry. At least for now.