Oracle LOB in Symfony2 und Doctrine2 mittels OCI8-Extension: Die Stolpersteine erkennen

Oracle LOB in Symfony2 mit OCI-Lob Klasse nutzbar zu machen, ist nicht ganz einfach. Unter anderem die Unterstützung von Large Objects (LOB) hat in Doctrine2 einige Fallstricke, z.B. das Cachen von Queries, welches nicht ganz so optimal mit php_streams umgehen kann.

Hier will ich aber auf die Probleme bei der Benutzung des Oracle OCI8 Drivers von Doctrine2 in Bezug auf LOBs eingehen. Weiterlesen

Everybody can fork MySQL. But what about market penetration?

When I talked with journalists, lawyers and analysts about the Oracle/Sun merger case questions were raised about the possibility to fork MySQL and that everybody who is not satisfied with Oracle’s future way regarding MySQL could do this. I don’t agree with that and I think it’s best to put Monty’s own words (found in a comment in his blog) here because I can’t explain it better:

In addition, the MySQL trademark is so strong that it’s hard to impossible for a fork to attract enough attention to be able to compete in a meaningful manner if MySQL would be owned by a vendor that refuses to cooperate and works against the fork.

Oracle/MySQL – Project Peter – Monty’s dreams for BSD license

These are tough days in the case of the Oracle/MySQL decision the EU faces. First of all, the lobbyists of Oracle achieved that the decision deadline will be extended from January, 19th to January, 27th 2010. Secondly, Monty recommended that a license change from GPL to BSD would be a great idea for MySQL’s future.

 

Today, Johann pointed me to a document called „Project Peter“ which can be found at wikileaks.org (download PDF from wikileaks.org server in Sweden). It’s a presentation of MySQL’s Robin Schumacher. You may ask „What is Project Peter?“. The presentation says:

Project Peter is an internal effort to assist Sun/MySQL customers in migrating from Oracle to MySQL by offering them a comprehensive solution that consists of Professional Services, Best Practices, and a set of approved third party migration tools and utilities that will enable them to move to MySQL in a way that is as easy as possible.

Marten Mickos, former CEO of MySQL, tweeted some time ago about an interview in eWeek where he was asked if Oracle and MySQL compete directly against each other. On page 2 of this interview, he claims that certainly Oracle and MySQL compete to each other:

„MySQL most certainly competes with Oracle,“ Mickos said. „And successfully so. But what must be remembered in terms of dollars in that competition, it is not significant enough to warrant an antitrust consideration. Secondly, this competition happens partly outside of the business—in the free, installed base.

„So no matter who owns MySQL, the competition will continue to exist.“

Even if Oracle does ultimately own the MySQL code base and act as the enterprise headquarters for the database, „MySQL will still apply price pressure on Oracle,“ Mickos said. „That won’t change. This is why there’s no reason to stop the acquisition.“

Asked about the future of MySQL, Mickos claimed: „The MySQL business is a very strong business, with enormous potential in the next 10 to 20 years.“

 

So, maybe MySQL doesn’t compete in terms of dollars today. But if MySQL does have a bright future in the next 10 or 20 years, there’s evidence that numbers will climb up in the era of the „database for the web“. So that’s why there’s Project Peter for the sales force of Sun to try to convert Oracle customers to MySQL. I’m not sure if Oracle will accept a Project Peter if Oracle will own Sun and MySQL in the future – I guess they’ll shut down Project Peter because MySQL may be kind of a threat to Oracle’s business in certain areas.

 

And this is why Oracle mustn’t own MySQL.

EU to probe Oracle Sun deal

According to Yahoo News (and WSJ, only for subscribers – thanks to @Oswald for mentioning it on twitter, see also Reuters), the EU opens an in-depth probe to the Oracle-Sun deal.

 

According to the source, EU Competition Commisioner Neelie Kroes said:

„The (European) Commission has an obligation to ensure that customers would not face reduced choice or higher prices as a result of this takeover,“

 

Furthermore, the commision set a January 19, 2010 deadline for its decision, Yahoo News said.

 

PS: U.S. already approved the deal.

PHP5 und Oracle

Gestern war ich zu Gast bei der DOAG Regionalgruppe Rhein-Main, um etwas über „PHP5 und Oracle“ zu erzählen. Der Vortrag richtete sich an DBAs, für die die Webwelt eine recht neue Welt ist und zeigt auf, warum gerade PHP eine passende Sprache für (businesskritische) Webanwendungen ist und weshalb PHP5 (seit einigen Jahren) auch sehr gut mit Oracle zusammenarbeitet. Den Vortrag werde ich im September noch mal bei der DOAG Regionalgruppe in Hamburg halten.

What will be the future of MySQL against the backdrop of the Oracle acquisition?


The German Oracle User Association (DOAG e.V.) has published a statement (in German) about the acquisition of Sun/MySQL by Oracle and its impact for Oracle users. You can find the statement here.

 

Oh and btw, I’ll give a session about „PHP5 & Oracle“ at the local Oracle usergroups in Frankfurt on June, 23rd and Hamburg on Sep 14th. The main goal is to promote the usage of PHP5 in Oracle environments (and how you can leverage PHP’s potential in Enterprise environments) as there are good Oracle database connectors for PHP5 available. See you there!