When Monty Widenius and David Axmark created MySQL, they envisioned it to be a truly open-source database. But over time, MySQL was acquired and became commercialized at the hands of Oracle. The duo has now reunited, thanks to a recent merger, and plan to work on another database, called MariaDB, hoping to make it purely open-source.
When Widenius and Axmark created MySQL, it became immensely popular and has remained so to this day. The open-source database continues to be among the most popular databases used on the web. It was later acquired by Sun Microsystems which, in turn, was acquired by Oracle.
Ever since Oracle acquired MySQL, it has been moving towards commercializing it. For instance, recent updates released on the paid version of the database were not made available to the users of the free version. In other words, the company has taken away the open-source nature of MySQL.
Widenius and Axmark had parted ways after creating MySQL and were working at different companies until recently. Monty Widenius was part of Monty Program AB whereas Axmark was on the board of SkySQL. The two companies recently underwent a merger which essentially brings back the original MySQL team.
Both co-founders of MySQL now aim to put their weight behind another open-source database, MariaDB. MariaDB is originally a product of Monty Program AB. Partik Sallner, who is the CEO of SkySQL, will be heading the company after the merger. He vows that among the key priorities of SkySQL is to continue supporting MariaDB and keep it open-source and transparent.
Courtesy: WSJ
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