As if you haven't already had enough of that joke. From Google Base: “Post your items on Google. Google Base is Google's database into which you can add all types of content. We'll host your content and make it searchable online for free.”
Oddly, only some people can seem to get there right now. This could get interesting. With this move, Google is trying to become a huge generic data warehouse. They get the data for free, which gives them not only more to search (so more ads to show) but more importantly more information on how people use data. Think about that for a second. Add in the much rumored Google payment system and you come out with a Craigslist-Ebay hybrid that is searchable via Google technology. Could be huge - we'll have to see which direction Google pushes it in.
Google
–jeremy
Archive for October, 2005
I've been talking a lot about MySQL recently, so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that MySQL 5.0 is now the official GA release. Congrats the the whole MySQL AB team. You probably have a tough road ahead, but this is certainly something to be proud of and a moment to sit back and enjoy.
One thing I've never quite understood is the huge rivalry between some of the PostgreSQL and MySQL fans. I say some, because it's clearly a small but vocal minority on both sides. The PostgreSQL fans point out the MySQL is not a real database and data integrity is zero while the MySQL folks says…well - I'm sure you've heard the arguments. The fact is, they are both quality Open Source solutions that we should be proud of. We should be on the same team here. The fact is, PostgreSQL started at one end (hard to use, slower but ACID and more SQL compliant) and MySQL started at the other (easy to use, faster but not ACID). They've both made huge strides in each others direction and they are both now much closer to the middle (although still skewed slightly in their original directions). Because of their roots they tend to have much different supporters, but in reality I see many PostgreSQL people making comparisons when they've clearly not used MySQL since 3.23 and I see many MySQL people making comparisons when they've clearly not used PostgreSQL since about 6.5. Stop the bickering and use the right tool for the right job. I think you'll find that between PostgreSQL and MySQL you'll find that you have a solution for almost any occasion. In more cases then you might think these days, I think you may find that either DB will fit the bill. FWIW, LQ uses MySQL and it's not even 5.x. We've put off even looking at InnoDB until things settle down. Even if we had transactions, guess what - we wouldn't use them. Why? We don't need them. Does that mean we'd never switch? No! The right tool for the right job.
MySQL, PostgreSQL
–jeremy
It seems that Microsoft is talking to the OSI about licensing. Now, I know that license proliferation is a very real problem, but I think Microsoft having a bona-fide OSI approved Open Source license that they are willing to consistantly use is probably a good thing. It would be ideal if they felt comfortable with one of the current ones, of course, but that may not be the case. Considering one of the main mantras of Open Source is that choice is good, I never understood the “GPL is the one true way” mentality. The Red Hat rep rails Microsoft for not using th GPL, but then goes on to say that out of 800 RHEL 4 source packages, only 400 are under the GPL. The OSI is still working on the proliferation issue, but surely “no new license under any circumstance” isn't a stance I can see them taking (for good reason). IMHO, if choice is good then the ability to choice from a variety of bona-fide Open Source licenses is good too. The obvious downside is that code licensed under one license can't be used in code licensed under another. That is a huge downside and one of the main reasons that proliferation is a problem at all. Like most things that are worth while though, this is a balancing act and is going to take some work to get right. Danese Cooper and Tim O'Reilly weigh in on the issue.
OSI, Open Source, Microsoft, GPL, Red Hat
–jeremy
I found a little more information about the recent MySQL/Innobase topic. Why am I not going to post the link? The article is on a SYS-CON site, but that has nothing to do with it. You may remember that most of the Open Source related SYS-CON staff resigned a while back (LQ Radio interview), but I have a policy on this blog of linking to any story that I find useful or of interest, regardless of the source. So what is the reason? It reliably crashes both Firefox and Mozilla for me, and I don't want to put you through that. I'm not sure if it's one of the 14 ads or the video applet that insists on auto starting…but after the fourth try I gave up and went to good ol' lynx. The interesting tidbit in the article is the following quote from MySQL AB CEO Marten Mickos:
“On the day of the announcement, I received a phone call from Oracle president Charles Phillips assuring me of their intent to renew the contract. They certainly have the resources to add value to InnoDB. But even if the contract would not be renewed for some reason, the existing contract gives MySQL broad rights to future releases of InnoDB. The contract also allows us to perpetually service our existing InnoDB customers. Additionally, users can feel secure in the fact that InnoDB is an open source product that is freely available to use and modify under the GPL License.”.
It seems the current contract terms might be a little more liberal then one would have thought. Since it was probably just Heikki negotiating for Innobase, the terms seem to be quite favorable for MySQL AB. Odds on that happening again with Oracle at the helm? Slim I'd guess. The article also has a brief comment on the recent SCO deal. You haven't heard SCOX for a while, have you. It's nice, isn't it 
I'll keep it that way and not go into any more detail.
MySQL, Innobase, Oracle, Open Source, GPL
–jeremy
While I've not seen a lot of news about this, it seems quite asinine to me. When a vendor can tell a customer what its employees can do on their own time, something is wrong. I'm sure most of you remember the BitKeeper Linux kernel debacle from a little while ago, but this really kicks things up a notch. It would be like Ford saying that once you purchased a Ford, you couldn't work at any other automobile manufacturer. Even Microsoft doesn't have a policy this insane, and I have no doubts that if they tried they would be sued for anti-competitive practices faster than you could commit a patch with git. Larry seems to have completely lost it as this point, IMHO. I'm quite frankly surprised that this story hasn't created more noise.
BitMover, BitKeeper, OpenSource, Mercurial, SCM
–jeremy
A quick follow up to this post. Not a whole lot of details have surfaced unfortunately, but a little moire information is available here. I'd love to get a hold of some of the “speculation” that was edited out (even off the record), but so far I haven't been able to This is turning into a huge story though, and even Forbes has covered it. Daniel Lyons is right up there with Laura Didio and Rob Enderle though, so watch where you step. The one thing I did notice is that just days after the announcement, Heikki was on the support list as usual - helping random users (which I think shows some class). I'd still guess that MySQL AB is kicking themselves for not acquiring Innobase when they had the chance, and they certainly can't be looking forward to having to renegotiate their deal for InnoDB with Oracle. Ellison is ruthless when it comes to competition and something as simple as making all products containing InnoDB to be GPL'd would throw a huge wrench into the MySQL revenue stream. This will get interesting (and probably messy).
MySQL, Oracle, Innobase, InnoDB, GPL
–jeremy
A follow up to this post, it looks like Microsoft may consider adding OpenDocument support after all, based on “customer demand”. I'd guess that just one or two state Governments alone would be enough demand. I hope MA stands firm here. Unfortunately, one thing I can see happening (which could potentially be quite damaging) is substandard support. By adding deficient support, Microsoft could make using OpenDocument sufficiently painful that it would almost be useless. They'd have the “supports OpenDocument” checkbox to get the contracts, but people who had to use it would suffer. This could have two possible outcomes; 1) People hate OpenDocument and just keep using .doc out of a fundamental lack of understanding what the problem is. 2) People turn to a Word alternative that properly supports OpenDocument. I could see either happing depending on the situation, so it would certainly be a calculated risk on Microsoft's part. They have done something similar in the past with WordPerfect support and we know how that ended up. This story keeps getting more interesting though, and is definitely one I'll be keeping a close eye on (hint: you should too).
OpenDocument, OASIS, Microsoft, Open Source
–jeremy
Ward Cunningham, the father of the Wiki, has officially left Microsoft and will be joining the Eclipse Foundation. Luckily for Ward, when Ballmer said “just tell me it's not Google”, he could calmly say no and avoid another aeron getting tossed. This marks a huge change for Ward. Not only is he going from proprietary to Open Source, but he's only Eclipse's 10th employee. His new title is Director of Committer Community Development, but the article seems to indicate that he'll be doing more than just that (which you'd expect in an organization of 10). It's great to see names like this join the Open Source world and hopefully at some point, moves like this will stop the silly you can't make any money with free software that Microsoft and other keep spouting off. This is a great time to check out WardsWiki or the LQ Wiki, which aims to be the largest general Linux knowledgebase on the web.
Microsoft, Eclipse, Open Source, Wiki, Linux,
–jeremy
In this article, a Google engineer makes a couple comments on Google Maps. That's not what I find interesting though. While Google Maps is amazingly slick, it has some major usability holes IMHO (no ability to save your location, no ability to do multiple-stop trips, an odd propensity to label streets with names that no one actually seems to use). Those problems aside, there is no question that the design of Google Maps fundamentally changed what people expect out of a Web app - and that is a good thing. So, if I didn't find the Google Maps bit interesting, why am I pointing you to the article? About half way down, you get this: “A number of people are now working on a Linux port of Google Earth, but Rasmussen did not offer a release date.”. Fantastic to see that Google is continuing their commitment to support Linux in their apps. I've commented on this before and was extremely happy to see this reaffirmation. I also found the comment “According to Rasmussen, Google's design philosophy centres on end user loyalty not money, going beyond the browser's lowest common denominator, to develop simple Web applications that are as dynamic as native applications, and to launch early and often to learn from users.”. I'd have thought it was clear that, for Google, “end user loyalty” and “money” are inextricably tied and quite possibly always will be. The kind of lockin you see with Microsoft just will never be possible for Google. In the online world, the barriers to using another search engine, another ad publisher, or another
Google, Linux, AJAX, Microsoft,
–jeremy
Microsoft Windows just turned twenty. For a full history of Windows, here's the Wikipedia article. What I find ironic, and didn't know, is that the very first version of Windows shipped quite late and vastly understated hardware requirements. Seems not much has changed Truth is, I never used Windows 1.0 so I can't testify to how it was. My first version of Windows was Windows/386. From there I went to 3.1->3.11 and finally the “Chicago” (Windows 95) Beta. That beta was the last version of Windows I have used as my daily desktop. I've played with various versions of Windows after that, from 2000 up to and including 2k3. The one notable exception is XP, which sans a single class I took I've never really logged into. While Windows 2003 isn't all that bad, to me the sad part is that it's not all that good. There's finally some semblance of stability, but it still has myriad security issues, questionable architecture decisions and lacks so much basic functionality that it's astounding. To me, Windows represents just how far you can get in the computing world by being good enough. In fact, Microsoft seems to have turned that into an art. Rarely the first to market, rarely the best value and rarely the best. BUT, they are perceived to be good enough and are a known commodity. The reality though is that after billions of dollars and twenty years of work, Windows is still only good enough. To me that is a monumental failure. It could have been so much more. When you put it in that perspective, I think Linux has made great strides and has done so with way less money behind it and only twelve years of development. In the Windows world, twelve years puts you just past Windows95. Linux is way beyond that in comparison, IMHO. Now, Linux still has a long long way to go and has a ton of places where it needs improvement. We'll get there though and it's been a pleasure to be along for the ride.
Windows, Microsoft, Linux
–jeremy
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