databases [was: Re: Ruby Active Record]

[Dan Shafer]

I had a big project two years ago that was going to rely on MySQL. I had our
attorneys review their licensing agreements and then talk to MySQL AB's
legal eagles. $5,000 in lawyer fees later, nobody could answer my question
about licensing. The application is now happily running on PostgreSQL.

I use MySQL for my own apps on my Dreamhost-hosted sites because Dreamhost
has dealt with the licensing issue and they're all personal use anyway. For
everything else, I'm more comfortable with PostgreSQL. Yes, I know all the
arguments about why MySQL is better. I don't care. I choose not to use
software from a company that can't write a clear license and can't answer
what I think are clear questions about their restrictions.


On 4/20/06, Mark Wieder <mwieder at ahsoftware.net> wrote:
>
> Lynn-
>
> Thursday, April 20, 2006, 3:52:58 PM, you wrote:
>
> >> In my case, I have a for-profit client whose product goes out
> >> to non-profit clients of theirs. The MySQL licensing gets
> >> pretty dicey there. I don't pretend to understand whether
> >> anyone needs to buy a commercial license, what kind, and
> >> who's responsible for taking care of it.
>
> > Id pass the buck to whomever writes the checks ;-)
>
> In that case, you'd be misunderstanding the situation. Scenario: you
> write a spiffy app that goes out to hundreds of non-profit clients,
> and you charge them a nominal fee for it and for support. If it relies
> on MySQL for a backend server, are you responsible for getting a
> commercial license or are the clients who run and maintain it? And
> given that the clients are non-profits who may be entitled to a free
> commercial license, would it not be counterintuitive for the developer
> to pay for a commercial license rather than telling the clients to get
> their own?
>
> --
> -Mark Wieder
> mwieder at ahsoftware.net
>
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--
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Dan Shafer, Information Product Consultant and Author
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