NewsForge: Database Vendors are Joining the Open Source Party

"Whether companies sell or provide their databases with fully available source code, through a new open source project, or with their very own open source license, there is definitely open source fever in the database business these days. Older, established database makers such as IBM, Sybase, and CA are releasing the code for what were previously proprietary products. But these players are coming late to the party thrown by MySQL, PostgreSQL, BerkelyDB maker Sleepycat, and Firebird. How much open source beer are these newcomers bringing to the database bash, or are they simply coming in and asking where the cups are?

"The companies that create and sell databases differ on how much of the trend toward opening proprietary products under open source licenses is business and technical versus how much is marketing lip service to the open source bandwagon, which is sometimes viewed as a new opportunity for old products..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Computer Business Review: CA Cautious on Further Open Source(Dec 17, 2004)
• eWeek: Customers Win in Database Vendors' Race to Linux(Dec 03, 2004)
• LinuxElectrons: Oracle and Novell Certify Their Latest Enterprise Linux Offerings(Dec 01, 2004)
• Computer Business Review: Red Hat and MySQL Back European Anti-Patent Campaign(Oct 21, 2004)