What does the acquisition of MySQL by Sun mean for MySQL users?

Given Sun’s proven track record as the largest contributor to Open Source, I think MySQL users have plenty of reason to feel happy about the acquisition. There are many companies that attempt to ride the wave of positive attention towards Open Source, but in my judgement, Sun gets it right. Sun gets Open Source. Java has been released under the GPL. There’s the OpenSolaris operating system. There’s Open Office / Star Office. There’s the GlassFish application server. There’s the NetBeans IDE tool. And more.

Sun’s track record is embodied by individuals with a solid set of FOSS values, such as Simon Phipps (Sun’s Chief Open Source Officer), Ian Murdock (Debian founder, now Sun’s Chief OS Strategist), and Josh Berkus (PostgreSQL lead). I’ve met all three in various FOSS arenas, I respect their work, and I am looking forward to be working closely with them.

Anxiety on the part of MySQL users may stem from Sun’s success with Java and Solaris. Will MySQL’s support for other programming languages and operating systems now be given less attention?

Absolutely not. MySQL is still being managed by the same people, and the charter is still the same. There is no need for reducing the set of platforms or languages. It only makes sense for us to continue to support defacto Web development standards like LAMP, as well as emerging ones like Ruby and Eclipse. This deal is about addition, not subtraction.

But let’s dwell on the topic of Solaris a bit. Solaris has a special position in the heart of MySQL, as it was the first platform under which MySQL was developed. Linux came second. Internally, code coverage tests were long performed just on Sun. And with the DTrace probes planned as part of 6.0, some types of optimisation of MySQL applications are the easiest on Solaris.

I would expect that having access to the topmost Solaris and Java experts within the same company will accelerate our development for the benefit of MySQL users on the Solaris platform, and in the Java environment, respectively.

But I don’t expect that in any way to be at the cost of other popular operating systems (Linux, Windows, Mac OS/X, other Unixes etc.) or development environments (PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, Python, ODBC, C++, C#, VB etc.). MySQL grew with LAMP and MySQL without LAMP at its core is simply unimaginable. It was MySQLs part of LAMP that interested Sun in the first place. Hence I don’t see Sun having a platform migration strategy, but to continue to be an integral part of the dot in .com.

So while the news may be especially good for MySQL users on Solaris and/or Java, the news is definitely good irrespective of environment: As part of Sun, the MySQL database will have immediate access to technical, marketing, OSS developer relations and sales rescources that would have taken us years to build as an independent company.

What does the acquisition of MySQL by Sun mean for the core MySQL community?

I’d like to think that the acquisition of MySQL by Sun will be seen as good news also by the core group of users who form the active MySQL community. This is because Sun is a safe haven for MySQL. Sun knows Open Source, and to the extent things change, I expect Sun to add value to our community. I don’t expect huge change, though. We continue to work with our quality contributors, we continue to provide our MySQL Forums, the Planet MySQL blog aggregator, we remain on the #mysql-dev and #mysql channels on Freenode, we provide MySQL University lessons, we meet at the MySQL Users Conference. We’ll put effort into connecting the many FOSS enthusiasts and experts at Sun — whom we will now learn to know better — with our active user community.

What does the acquisition of MySQL by Sun mean for the MySQL employees?

Admittedly, this blog is not directed at MySQL employees. We have a different, internal blog called “Village MySQL” for that purpose (as opposed to “Planet MySQL”). But many of our users, community members, customers, and partners have close relationships with MySQL employees — and you may be interested in what Sun’s acquisition of MySQL means for the employees.

For employees, Sun’s acquisition means continuity. Mårten Mickos will continue to lead us, and our executives and key engineering leads plan to join Sun. In addition, our existing engineering staff will be invited to come over as well. Sun executives have made us feel very welcomed and valued.

Very important for our employees is the fact that we can continue to work on Free and Open Source software. We can continue to work from home (as most of us do, including myself). Titles, reporting structures, and long-term goals may change, but as acquisition goes, the Sun culture as I’ve experienced it so far seems fairly similar to ours.

And — whether it’s destiny, divinity or just good luck — we get the opportunity to digest all of this together, during the MySQL All-Company Meeting here in Orlando. It goes on this week until Saturday 19 Jan.

Being acquired by Sun is unique for all of us MySQLers. But for two very special employees, it’s something even more. I’m thinking of our founders, Michael “Monty” Widenius and David Axmark. I’m very happy for them. Sure, the transaction has a financial impact on them, and it’s positive. But we’re humble Scandinavians, so we don’t flash money, nor even talk about it. More importantly, I can see their heritage being in good hands at Sun. They didn’t develop MySQL in order to Get Rich Quick; in fact, they rejected offers that would have accomplished that goal during the Bubble. They developed MySQL in order to have a positive impact on the world of computing. And as a step in that direction, they took in venture financing.

VCs are more motivated by money than our founders, and obviously look for a return on their investment. That involves either an IPO or a trade sale. Of all candidates to acquire MySQL, I cannot imagine a more ideal buyer from a founder perspective than Sun Microsystems. If I know our founders right (and I’ve known Monty since the late 1970s and David since the 1980s), they will use this deal as an opportunity to accomplish even more within the space of Open Source and Sun Microsystems.

Congratulations, Monty and David! And congratulations, MySQL users, community members, customers, partners and employees!

via http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj

I have been using Firefox from the very beginning and i still do love it, however due to the excessive memory usage i have to find an alternative.

It seems there are quite a few browsers out there that are based on Gecko and WebCore Layout engines. The browsers i list here are web browsers that i found most useful and promising.

Flock (Win/Mac/Linux)

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Flock is a social web browser based upon Firefox, with its own user interface and a number of unique “social” features. Instead of locally stored bookmarks Flockr uses public bookmarks, letting users add bookmarks to del.ico.us “on the fly”. The browser integrates Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, Technorati and further services such as an RSS feed-reader. One good thing about flock is that it uses quite less memory than Firefox and it supports most of the extensions and addons that are available to Firefox (all of my debugging and development addons work well :p )

What makes Flock unique is its ability to improve the productivity of bloggers. E.g. you can publish your blog posts directly from your browser-window — a WYSIWYG-editor is preinstalled by default. You can also use a Web-Clipboard, Photo Uploader, a Mediabar for Flickr-Fotos etc. Flock was released in October 2005, the first stable version was available two years later. Flock uses Yahoo as a default search engine (you can change the default search engine to any engine you want)

Flock is available in Linux, Mac and Windows

Maxthon (Windows)

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Maxthon (earlier MyIE2) is a powerful tabbed browser built for all users. Besides basic browsing functionality, Maxthon Browser provides a rich set of features to improve your surfing experience. Compared to other browsers, Maxthon offers a very user-friendly interface, with a number of skins and plugins. Maxthon is a browser Internet Explorer 6 could have become if Microsoft developers tried to invest more in an optimal user experience. Whatever task you have to accomplish with Maxthon, you always feel absolutely comfortable as the interface is extremely well through-out and intuitive.

Maxthon has the basic functionalities offered by Mozilla family and Opera. It also offers the Anti-Freeze functionality which reacts once the browser seems to have frozen. You can also add shortcuts of your programs in Maxthon, and start them with a single click. You can even set programs to start and shutdown with Maxthon Browser. Screen capture is integrated and URL key-shortcuts can be set up with few clicks.

Understanding exactly how a digital SLR (dSLR) works can help you use its exciting capabilities to their fullest potential. Whether you aim to become a serious photo hobbyist, are interested in turning pro, or want to take advantage of the improved control that dSLRs give you over your photography, this fun and friendly reference will show you how to maximize everything a dSLR has to offer so that you can improve your photography skills, increase your picture-taking and image-editing knowledge, and ultimately, take better photos.

Written with just the right balance of technology and techniques in mind, this guide provides you with the know-how on everything from getting acquainted with the basic key features of the technology (lenses, sensors and image processors, and exposure and focusing systems) to the nuances of various dSLR techniques (setting up speedy continuous-shooting burst modes to capture fast action, applying selective and sharp focus, and shooting under the lowest levels of light). Other topics explored include:

* Composing your shots with an accurate viewfinder
* Deciding how many pixels your camera needs
* Cleaning the sensor yourself
* Choosing between a tripod or monopod
* Adjusting exposure and improving shutter speed
* Creating time-lapse sequences
* Fixing murky or contrasting photos

Download now!!! (16 MB)

Its been a while, have been away from this blogging hype for sometime..

but now am back in full swing with new RAD stuffs :p