MySQL is also upsetting the entire database market. Charles Garry, an analyst at Meta Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn., hails it as "a disruptive technology" that's commoditizing databases"so much so, he says, that "the future of the database market will be the standardization on MySQL."
Strong words, but adherents of the open-source database are passionate supporters, and they number in the millions. These users are drawn to it because it offers high performance, ease of use and a feature set broad enough to handle most of their database development needs. And it's cheap.
Indeed, MySQL's low cost never fails to come up in conversation with users. Mark Cotner, manager of network application development at Cox Communications Inc. in Atlanta, points out that his MySQL-based application cost less than $90,000 from soup to nuts, including the Intel-based servers, programming time and the approximately $4,000 annual license and support payments to MySQL AB, the Uppsala, Sweden-based company that oversees the development and distribution of the open-source database. An Oracle database license for the project would have totaled $300,000 by itself, he says.
I suppose this means that we (Cincom Smalltalk) should take a more serious look at MySQL - although there is a driver for it in the public store. This has got to be the best set of quotes in the article though, first from MS, and then from MySQL AB (the company behind MySQL):
Yet, despite MySQL's progress in the market, "we haven't found very much MySQL out there," says Microsoft's Rizzo.
"That's the best news I could have," retorts Mickos. "As long as Microsoft is in denial, we're fine."
They could both be right - so far.
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