... doesn't cut it in the real datacentre world where ubuntu only exists on the laptops brought in by engineers.

I hear there will be a new release soon that incorporates many of the community patches. Sun will distribute this on 2009-02-29.

"This is the same lesson that Debian hasn't yet learned from Ubuntu: fast and good-enough always beats slow and correct."

No, it really doesn't. It's just that MySQL is *already* the fast and good enough database app. Those who want "correct" are already using Oracle or, if they want free and open source, the very excellent PostgreSQL. MySQL does not exist in isolation and its users have already made the choice of ease over reliability so its no surprise some continue in that vein. (I use the word ease instead of fast because benchmarks don't put MySQL ahead of its competitors and its best to avoid confusion over what we mean with "fast" - in this case release cycles, not performance).

Anyway, just because some people are eating a slice of SUN's pie, doesn't mean that they made a poor decision. I'd say that the pie itself is considerably larger than it would have been had SUN kept things under lock and key. All of a small pie or a fat slice of a large one? SUN has decided to try for the latter with MySQL and people need to realise that rather than focus on a distorted picture. I'd say it's actually working out okay for them, though only a few more years will tell.

Paris, because fast and easy isn't always best.

So now MySQL will have forks in their Open Source distribution.

This must really put a crimp on Sun's plans for their conversion of MySQL users to their paid for supported version.

This isn't to say that Sun won't further release 'free' versions. Only that Sun will want punters to pay for the best and more efficient database engine that they derived on MySQL.

At least when IBM bought Informix, they knew what they were getting for their billion dollar investment. (Technology and a revenue stream with a real ROI and ttROI under 10 years.)

Didn't Sun realize that those who chose to use MySQL wanted a simple, lightweight, 'relational database' that was free?

Sorry but the brains at Sun are still asleep at the wheel.

Paris, because she apparently has more brains in her blond little head than all of the BoD and C level execs at Sun.

Is there a "Register bashing Sun" quotient that you have to meet each month? Were you running low for December? Better get one last anti-Sun story out there before the end of the year eh? Man you guys should maybe go investigate something before just writing a page of opinion and hoping people click your PPC to pay for that Christmas party in London.

How about looking into the Falcon storage engine or investigating ways of running multiple MySQL servers on a single server? That might be useful for devs, so I guess Sun-bashing wins out instead?

Isn't it amazing how anything that SUN turn there hand to these days gets so fucked up so quickly. They fucked Java, they fucked there Hardware business and the pony-tailed freak's Cloud computing initiative fell flat on it's arse.

Keep it up I say ... the sooner that company is bought, looted and broken up the better.

sad but true

They fucked up Java? They INVENTED Java ffs....

Obviously another Windoze fanboi

If there is one thing Sun is good at, it is binary compatibility, apps developed on Sun OS 5.7 are still running on the Open version of Sun Solaris 11 you can still link libraries coz compilers are compatible with previous versions ... if they want to achieve that kind of stability with MySQL, it may take some time and some free community tantrums.

Java is a heap of pooh by design but crappy Java apps using deprecated APIs are still ok to run on the latest JVM.

The only use of ubuntu I'm having is the live CD image so to manage GUI & MRB disks and partitions. ubuntu = toolbox not OS.

What do you mean "fast and good enough always beats slow and correct?" That's one of the most stupid blanket statements I think i've ever heard. I don't know if you've ever actually compared Debian to Ubuntu, but the meticulous nature of Debian's release cycle means that it performs exponentially better than Ubuntu. It's as if you're saying that people shouldn't care that much about quality or performance, but rather how often they can get a "new" product. Take issue with the bogged-down bureaucratic bullshit that Sun applies to all of their open-source software, sure, but try not to be a fucking idiot, why don't you?

Well fuck me, there's NO PROFANITY AT ALL in this story by Ted. What the fuck is up with that? Is he going soft? Maybe he's just taking a break because it's the holiday season.

Agreed.

Maybe their apple box marked "freebies for top 10 review articles" didn't arrive this christmas.

Erm, what exactly is a "native OS"? Does it come with bongo drums and spears?

And while I'm at it, Slackware? For kids?

Sure, slack is a great server OS, but as a desktop? Are you trying to turn them away from linux for life?

I was hoping for some festive fecking swearing from Father Ted.

About the only thing I agreed with in the article was the petulance of the open source zealots who love features and fluff over reliability and is often as loggerheads with production requirements.

"Sure, slack is a great server OS, but as a desktop? Are you trying to turn them away from linux for life?"

All under 10. Equally capable of installing/configuring/maintaining Windows/Slack/Ubuntu/whatever, wich is, not at all... So, Jake wil be doing it, and placing nice shortcuts on their dektops, and probably doing remote maintenance/admin. Wich means, Slack will be as friendly to a 10yo as Jake makes it to be.

Added bonus of not having to go through the FriendlyDistroTM "where the fuck did they put it this time...", "what in hell where they thinking" or "why is this crap even here..." routine.

<Flame shield on>Still , even Slack is starting to carry too much crap these days, sign of times i guess...<Flame shield off>

"First of all, you are undoubtedly a racist prick."

is a great thing to post, esp followed by:

"I'm not a zealot. "

Sigh. I love my slackware boxes, and I really don't like the idea of flamey zealot lunatics like you acting as self-appointed advocates. Please stop talking before you drive the last few holdouts to Vista. Seriously.