When Sun acquired MySQL and announced that it would invest the resources necessary to position the open source database for mission-critical deployments, I think everyone assumed that the database would eventually become bigger and heavier.
Few would have predicted that we would also see a project that would make the database smaller and lighter, but that [...]

EnterpriseDB has announced the results (PDF) of its recent survey of open source database usage.
While the company understandably highlights the adoption of PostgreSQL for transaction-intensive applications and its high reliability and performance and scalability EnterpriseDB has done a pretty good job of presenting the results in an unbiased manner.
I couldn’t help feeling that some [...]

Last week I wrote about whether Google’s potential acquisitions might be stifled by its focus on its own infrastructure software projects but noted that by releasing App Engine the company was encouraging a wider ecosystem of applications based on its platform.
What I didn’t discuss at the time was the potential risk of application vendors finding [...]

Attending the Open Mobile Exchange at OSCON today, I heard some differing perspectives on the role and impact of open source in the mobile software market. We heard from Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin how significant Linux is in the mobile and embedded spaces, some of the non-desktop Linux uses we predicted would be [...]

Ever since Sun acquired MySQL the rumours have been rife that Josh Berkus, PostgreSQL core team member and Sun’s PostgreSQL lead, would soon be heading out the door.
Josh has now confirmed that he is indeed leaving Sun, but before the doomsayers start writing of Sun’s PostgreSQL support business completely, Josh also notes that Peter [...]

Another year has passed by in a flash and OSCON, O’Reilly’s annual open source convention, is upon us. Fellow 451 open source analyst and Portlander, Jay Lyman, will be with me all week at the Oregon Convention Center to check the pulse of the open source development community, meet with vendors and clients, reconnect with [...]

Dana Blankenhorn states that “Open source should support Apple over Psystar”. I have to disagree. My perspective is not based on his views on contracts and licenses (although you can read plenty about that in the talkback section) but on a couple of other issues:
1/ “Open source” is not a single homogenised being or movement.
2/ [...]

It seems almost churlish to wonder whether Google could be even more successful than it already is with a different strategy, but the company’s approach to open source and open development has come into focus in recent weeks.
On last week’s podcast we discussed whether the company should see the AGPL as more of an opportunity [...]

Sun continues to take a performance pounding, and the rumors of replacements, layoffs and revamps are beyond swirling and now perpetuating skepticism of the company. It strikes me as odd that Sun, which has embraced open source and is also the defacto leading corporate open source software contributor, is continually dogged by doubts about its [...]

The Federation Against Software Theft has apparently published a survey indicating that 79% of British company directors “would be happy to avoid buying software licences in order to support their company’s balance sheet during the current tough economic climate.”
The anti-piracy organization pointed out that “the penalty for committing this type of fraud is up to [...]

Engine Yard and DimDim obtain new rounds of funding. Sun announces preliminary quarterly results. Symbian Foundation gains more endorsements. (and more)

Click to view today’s 451 CAOS Links.

Three months after open source systems management vendor Qlusters handed its OpenQRM code over to Sourceforge the company has apparently closed its doors and fired its 30 remaining employees.
The new is reported by Israeli newspaper Globes, which leaves no doubt about what it sees is to blame for the apparent failure of the company: [...]

“Software should have no nationality, nor even a collection of them,” writes Dana Blankenhorn in his slightly odd post today about the SQO-OSS (Software Quality Observatory for Open Source Software) project.
“Calling software European, as opposed to American or Burmese, sounds like an effort at exclusion. And a claim that your quasi-nationalistic project is the [...]

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has written an interesting article over at CIO.com about the lack of policies for open source adoption among enterprises.
The article has some interesting input from the likes of Maryland’s Howard County Library, the H. E. Butt Foundation, specialty tool vendor QEP, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Entertainment, HeavyLifters Network, and our [...]

Agenda:
* M&A update - IONA Technologies and Linspire
* Open source champions of Europe
* Are Google open source gates opening up?
iTunes or direct download (29:16, 6.7MB)

This week marked Apple’s release of the new iPhone 3G with bolstered connectivity and further refinement of the innovative device. While I had to smirk a bit at the iPhone hiccups, the OTHER device that keeps coming up for me (new models, press calls, wife wants one) is the netbook, or whatever you want to [...]

This is somewhat off-topic and also a personal bug-bear of mine but I hope you will forgive me as it does relate to open source and, in particular, the puzzling problem of source’s inability to make headway in UK schools.
The Inquirer is reporting that Becta, the UK government agency responsible for technology in the [...]

Mozilla’s Mitchell Baker has written a couple of great posts recently on the subject of community, or more specifically the meaning of the term “community” as applied to the open source development process.
The posts are particularly interesting to me as they related to an unfinished blog post that has been sat on my desktop [...]

Xandros acquires Linspire. Mozilla sets new world record. Openmoko finally ships. (and more)

Click to view today’s 451 CAOS Links.

Google recently open sourced code for its protocol buffers, a data encoding format which company staffers describe as superior and more efficient than XML for its purposes. It is interesting to see Google back the protocol buffer approach, but the more interesting part of this to FOSS fans is that Google also appears to be [...]