Forrester Research Inc.'s analyst Noel Yuhanna projects that mission-critical deployments of open source databases will increase by 20% this year. It is that growth that Yuhanna believes will drive the OSS database market from $300 million now to the $1 billion mark by 2008.
Read more here
Information Week writes: “After Oracle bought the Finnish owner of InnoDB, MySQL talked with Sleepycat about using Berkeley DB. Thanks to the Sleepycat deal, MySQL is back talking with Oracle about renewing its InnoDB license. MySQL has other options, says Zack Urlocker, VP of marketing, including tapping another open-source database or developing its own high-speed backup engine.”
Read more here
That will be interesting: Marten Mikos is on record as being against software patents and MySQL AB is a big sponsor of the European “no software patents” movement.
Jim Starkey on the other hand is on record defending software patents and has applied for patents on several of his creations. Presumably, Marten acquired those patents as well.
It will be interesting to see how MySQL will license out those patents, considering their earlier opposition to the very concept of software patents.
Read more here
SearchOpenSource has an interview with Douglas Levin, CEO of Waltham. Levin has been working behind the scenes with prospective open source vendor buyers and sellers. “I think that Oracle will make other acquisitions through the year, to get into new markets, acquire new customers and acquire technologies that enable them to leverage new technologies in their installed customer base.“
Read more here
Compiere will try to port its ERP suite to Derby. Currently database choice is limited to Oracle and Fyracle (Oracle-mode Firebird). Earlier attempts to port to Postgres and Sybase were effectively abandoned. It will be interesting to see if Derby joins the list of working ports towards the end of this year.
Read more here
LinuxQuestions announces that voting for the 2005 Members Choice Awards is now open. Awards will be given out in 20 categories, including Distribution of the Year, Browser of the Year, Office Suite of the Year, Desktop Environment of the Year and Database of the Year. The polls will close on March 16th. Please make sure that you take the time to register and vote for Firebird.
Read more here
Heisse Online reports that IBM will release a free (gratis) version of DB2 Express this month. The authors says that it is from a reliable, verified source in IBM. It worked like this: Firebird forced MS to release a free SQLServer (MSDE, later renamed Express) to compete in VB/Delphi space, Oracle had to match with the release of SQLServer2005 and now DB2 has to match Oracle. Isn't it amazing how a determined community can make giants jump?
Read more here
Vladimir Tsvigun has released build 125 of the Firebird ODBC driver. The change log of enhancements and bug fixes versus the previous builds is available at the Praktik website.
Read more here
Fyracle, the oracle-mode Firebird distribution, is getting some attention in the press around Europe. It is in the January 2006 issue of “Linux Programming” in Germany and France, and in the December 2005 issue of Software Developers Journal (not available online yet).
Read more here
Business Objects, Cognos, Information Builders Inc., and SAS Institute are setting the standards in BI, according to Gartner's "Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, 1Q06." The report cites SAS as having the most comprehensive BI platform in the industry. SAS, of course, is a Firebird user.
Read more here
