Sun以10亿美元收购MySQL

Reprinted from the Tech Times #182.

转载自《 科技时报》第182号 。

Open source enthusiasts were reeling this week when Sun Microsystems announced that it will be purchasing MySQL AB, the company behind the development of the popular MySQL database software, for US $1 billion.

当Sun Microsystems宣布将以10亿美元的价格收购MySQL AB时，开放源代码狂热者大受鼓舞。

The spin from both camps was positive, but what does the deal mean for web developers? And what impact is it likely to have on other open source projects?

这两个阵营的旋转都是积极的，但是这笔交易对网络开发人员意味着什么？ 它将对其他开源项目产生什么影响？

To attempt to answer these questions, we need to look at a number of factors, including Sun’s history with open source technologies, its competitors, and the success of other open source technologies that have been commercialized.

为了尝试回答这些问题，我们需要研究许多因素，包括Sun在开源技术方面的历史，竞争对手，以及其他已商业化的开源技术的成功。

While it’s not without its detractors, there’s no denying that Sun has a pretty solid history when it comes to involvement in the open source world. The company claims to be the biggest contributor to the open source community, a claim that, based upon its release of the Solaris source code in 2005, and the Java programming language in 2006, is difficult to refute.

尽管并非没有它的缺点，但不可否认的是，Sun在涉足开源世界方面拥有悠久的历史。 该公司声称是开源社区的最大贡献者 ，该声明基于其2005年发布的Solaris源代码和2006年发布的Java编程语言而难以反驳。

But there is other evidence of Sun understanding the value of keeping software open source and free: projects like OpenOffice.org and NetBeans have healthy communities and promising road maps. In fact, if you examine Sun’s current offerings to the corporate world, the only key component missing from the portfolio (and one that competitors such as Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft already offer) is a database. MySQL, with over 10 million installations worldwide (including high-traffic sites such as Google and Facebook) is a natural fit.

但是，还有其他证据表明Sun理解保持软件开源和免费的价值： OpenOffice.org和NetBeans等项目拥有健康的社区和有希望的路线图。 实际上，如果您研究Sun目前为企业界提供的产品，那么该产品组合中唯一缺少的关键组件(以及Oracle，IBM和Microsoft等竞争对手已经提供的组件)就是数据库。 MySQL在全球范围内的安装量超过1000万(包括流量较高的网站，例如Google和Facebook)，这是很自然的选择。

One concern that web developers may have is that the licensing terms will change — what if Sun decides to start charging a licensing fee for each of the installations of MySQL?

Web开发人员可能会担心的是，许可条款将发生变化-如果Sun决定开始为每个MySQL安装收取许可费，该怎么办？

In my opinion, this just won’t happen, simply because Sun realizes that it hasn’t bought a database — it’s bought a community. A community of employees, developers, and clients.

在我看来，这仅仅是因为Sun意识到自己没有购买数据库-而是购买了社区，所以这不会发生。 由员工，开发人员和客户组成的社区。

Related to this is the question of whether development of the cross-platform releases of MySQL will stagnate, with Sun’s energy being focused on compatibility with the Solaris platform. Here’s what MySQL’s VP of Community Relations, Kaj Arnö, had to say on the matter:

与此相关的问题是，随着Sun的精力集中在与Solaris平台的兼容性上，MySQL跨平台发行版的开发是否会停滞不前。 这是MySQL的社区关系副总裁KajArnö在此事上必须说的 ：

“I don’t expect (the development of MySQL on Solaris) in any way to be at the cost of other popular operating systems (Linux, Windows, Mac OS/X, other Unixes etc.) or development environments (PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, ODBC, C++, C#, VB etc.). MySQL grew with LAMP, and MySQL without LAMP at its core is simply unimaginable. It was MySQL’s part of LAMP that interested Sun in the first place. Hence I don’t see Sun having a platform migration strategy, but to continue to be an integral part of the dot in .com.”

“我不希望以任何方式(在Solaris上开发MySQL)都会以其他流行的操作系统(Linux，Windows，Mac OS / X，其他Unix等)或开发环境(PHP，Ruby on Rails，Perl，Python，ODBC，C ++，C＃，VB等)。 MySQL随着LAMP的发展而增长，而没有LAMP核心MySQL简直是不可想象的。 首先，MySQL是LAMP的一部分，它引起了Sun的关注。 因此，我看不到Sun具有平台迁移策略，而是继续成为.com中不可或缺的一部分。”

In short, Sun understands the business model around open source software, and it wouldn’t have invested $1 billion into a company only to screw over its users for a short-term profit when the long-term prospects — driving MySQL into the corporate arena with paid support — look so bright. There are plenty of other open source databases (PostgreSQL, for example) with comparable features and performance that customers would quickly migrate to if they were unhappy.

简而言之，Sun了解围绕开源软件的商业模式，它不会向一家公司投资10亿美元，只是为了在长期前景方面将其用户骗取短期利润，从而将MySQL推入公司领域在付费支持下-看起来如此明亮。 还有许多其他开源数据库(例如PostgreSQL)，它们具有可比的功能和性能，如果客户不满意，它们会Swift迁移到这些数据库。

And as for the figure paid by Sun? While some would suggest the number was low given the size of the MySQL user base, $1 billion is a lot of money in anyone’s eyes. Let’s take a look at some other recent open source acquisitions [source]:

至于Sun支付的数字呢？ 尽管有些人认为这个数目相对于MySQL用户群的规模来说还是很低的，但在任何人眼中，10亿美元都是一笔巨款。 让我们看一下其他一些最近的开源收购[ source ]：

• US$210 million for SUSE Linux (Novell)
  2.1亿美元用于SUSE Linux(Novell)
• US$400 million for JBoss (Red Hat)
  JBoss(红帽)的4亿美元
• US$500 million for XenSource (Citrix)
  5亿美元收购XenSource(Citrix)
• US$350 million for Zimbra (Yahoo!)
  3.5亿美元收购Zimbra(Yahoo!)

I’d say the MySQL team would be feeling pretty happy with themselves right now. Who said there was no money in open source software?

我想说MySQL团队现在会对自己感到非常满意。 谁说开源软件没有钱？

翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/sun-buys-mysql-for-1-billion/