mySQL isn't assimilating SAPDB. They are getting it for free. I doubt they even know what they have yet.
Do you really think the tiny little mySQL organization "bought out" SAPDB :0 SAP is a huge company with huge profits compared to mySQL. You are reading the public relations 'spin'. Here is one possible view of the "recent" SAPDB history... 1. SAP purchased Adabase and had internal-only SAPDB for R/3. They offered it as an option for R/3 customers. Maybe it was a swipe at Oracle (Oracle is a R/3 competitor along with Peoplesoft, not just a database vendor). Maybe they had a couple thousand customers who used SAPDB, but not very many. Most continue to use Oracle with R/3. 2. SAP management decided after so many years that SAPDB this was not benefiting the R/3 business and then decided to release SAPDB as open source. 3. The open source usage of SAPDB never really took off. SAP pretty much treated it like a 'commercial product' but with free distribution. The source code was not very inviting to outsiders - and other than S390 and FreeBSD ports, not much has really come INTO SAPDB from being opened. Very few people in the open source community know the SAP name, and SAPDB itself is "best kept secret." Despite being free for over 2 years, it is still very obscure. 4. SAPDB decided to cut $. Paying Germany professional salary rates to continue to support and develop SAPDB, which is generating no income nor significant positive press. So they work to develop a exit plan... 5. SAP strikes a deal to give SAPDB to MySQL including labor of the employees for some time period. Better than just shutting the doors overnight, but still a plan to rid themselves of the product line and staff (just in a phased approach). I think the "open sourcing" of SAPDB was a _last ditch effort_ for a product dying from own weight. I think management at SAP decided open sourcing didn't work and is exiting the stage on the DB market. MySQL picked it up at clearance price. I wouldn't be surprised if mySQL is getting free labor (paid employees for x years) and all the technology out of the deal. In other words, SAP may be _paying_ mySQL to take the product as part of a graceful way of ridding themselves of the product. Wild speculation on my part. Only my personal opinion of the tracks I see on the road. I could bey _way way off_. No intention to offend anyone. Stephen Gutknecht -----Original Message----- From: Sven K�hler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 5:36 PM To: Zak Greant Cc: Thomas Cataldo; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: MySQL AB and the SAP DB community [snip] I feel like you MySQL-people are assimilating SAPDB. At least the Borg claim to learn things while assimilating other species. I'm not sure if MySQL will. Please supply us with a plan what will be done! We need it! Proove, that you are not foolish enough, to create a product that is not as good as the one we already have (i should say "had", because SAPDB is no more - R.I.P) [snip] _______________________________________________ sapdb.general mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://listserv.sap.com/mailman/listinfo/sapdb.general
