"ZDNet reader Gary Woodman from Australia has been challenging my conclusions from LinuxWorld that Sun may have little choice but to acquire some additional software stack components, such as MySQL and Zend (the PHP guys). In a recent e-mail, Woodman wrote, 'Sun feels, as most would, that it doesn't need its 'own' database; if it's not happy with Oracle, it could forge an alliance with MySQL, sponsor PostGres or Firebird, or build on its relationship with Software AG. Sun could have an enterprise-class database if it wanted one. My feeling is that Sun is just acknowledging that there are plenty of good ones for their customers to choose, and that it's an uphill battle enough to try to sell people on Sun hardware and OS without the person-years of redevelopment that changing enterprise databases would require.'
"Woodman raises a valid point about Sun trying to maintain a certain amount of neutrality, but that neutrality is becoming more difficult to maintain as Sun's rivals compete on some fairly unorthodox terms..."
