"MySQL chief Marten Mickos isn't afraid his rivals in the
database-software industry will ever overtake him. 'Let them try,'
he says. 'Our secret is in the way we operate our culture, and I'm
convinced others cannot imitate that.'
"Mr. Mickos has about 12 million reasons to feel that way--the
number of (mostly unpaid) programmers in MySQL's collaborative
community. The company has been committed to 'open-source'
innovation since its founding in 1995..."