I don’t know why I find this odd but I really, really do.
If you’ve done any work with the self-hosted version of WordPress then you’re already intimately aware of MySQL, the preferred database of connecting the core application to a relational system to make all of that “magic” work.
And in less than 4 weeks it’ll turn 18 years old – I suppose it’s just graduating High School at this point. During it’s storied history though it’s gone through a lot from being bought for $1B by Sun Microsystems and then experiencing an Oracle acquisition for 7x that less than 2 years later.
If you were around at that time you may have had more than a few WTF!-moments when this happened because we saw a commercial database company own and manage an open source alternative. Oh wait, better still, let’s just use the word competitor.
Naturally people didn’t really jive with that move, including Michael Widenius, who helped create the first version and he forked it under GNU (same structure as WordPress) and created the Monty Organization, a center of “engineering excellence” that oversees the development of MariaDB, a replacement for the integral part of the MySQL LAMP stack.
Ok, so, that’s cool, right? Well, recently Monty has signed a merger deal with SkySQL where the latter includes MySQL executives such as David Axmark, who was also a co-creator of MySQL.
See how it’s all coming back full-circle? The original team behind MySQL parts ways due to the divisions and acquisition cycles and then comes back together to party, once again, as they head off to “college” from their rambunctious High School years:
SkySQL today announced that it has signed a merger agreement with Monty Program Ab, creators of the fastest growing open source database technology: MariaDB. This merger reunites key members of the original MySQL AB developer and services teams.
Their aim is to develop MariaDB into a truly interoperable, NewSQL open source database in collaboration with its customers, partners and the community. The company also pledges to further evolve its offering for users of the MySQL database.
Near the end it’s fascinating that Michael also adds a personal note, which I wasn’t originally aware of:
Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius, CTO of the MariaDB Foundation, stated: “The MySQL database is named after my first daughter, My. The MariaDB database is named after my second daughter, Maria.
With this merger and my own role in the MariaDB Foundation, I’m ensuring that the MariaDB project will remain ‘open source forever’, while knowing that enterprise and community users of both the MySQL & MariaDB databases will benefit from best-in-breed products, services and support provided by SkySQL.
And who doesn’t want the best for their children?
Classy and a bit spooky, perhaps. In this way he’ll ensure the long-term plan to stay OS forever. One of my key takeaways from these events as of late is just that of future notetaking – MySQL and their history over the last 2 decades can provide much learning for our much younger WordPress community, even if we’re closing in on our very first decade.
Perhaps we can learn a thing or two as well.
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