Open source pressure hits deep inside Oracle
According to CNet, Oracle is about to launch a free version of its flagship 10g RDBMS called "Express Edition." It seems more than coincidental that the name includes the word "Express" given that Microsoft already announced plans for a free version of SQL Server next year with the same "Express" product label.
Not to confuse, Oracle is not releasing any source code here. But I think it would be naive to believe this isn't an attempt to take the pressure off enterprise IT decision-makers who have been facing tough questions on why they shouldn't use open source products like MySQL and PostgreSQL where those products more than meet requirements and where the free upfront licensing cost is quite attractive to business leaders.
Unfortunately, I think this may serve to confuse people on the matter that the zero dollar price tag of free software -- "free as in beer" to quote Stallman -- is the primary value of open source software. Let no one be confused, it's the quality of the code that makes open source software useful, plus the freedom to modify and change to meet your personal needs. I like to think of the zero dollar initial cost as a nice extra.
Another interesting bit in this article is the reference to "low-end databases." Going back several years, Oracle's tongue in cheek remarks about open source databases were that they might suffice for low-end uses, a snobbish way of saying that grown-ups eventually all turn to Oracle, and that they were a net gain for Oracle. This is a change in that positioning. I would guess that they've seen enough customers use MySQL when they were small and then figured out ways of scaling it so that they did not need Oracle as they grew. In that light, this repositioning makes good sense if you're looking out for Oracle's market share and you believe MySQL challenges it.