Why You Shouldn't Trust MySQL
From Zanecorpwiki
It's hard to find examples of a single company that does a good job of shepherding an open source project and running a for-profit services based directly on the same product. In fact, MySQL may be the best example there is. There are issues with MySQL (the product and the company), but overall, it's hard to argue that there not a success.
Still, at the end of the day I'm a firm believer that you cannot serve two masters. It's partially because there are fundamental tensions between the two goals that cannot be resolved within the same organization... at least not within the standard business models. It'd be like having a doctor on the payroll of pharmaceutical companies.[notes 1]
The bigger problem may simply be one of focus. Consider this: you're the CEO of a for profit company that also makes an open source product: where are your best developers going to go? You're job is to make money and the path from MySQL open source to profit is torturous whereas every version of "enterprise" or SLA you sell brings in dollars.
Notes
- ↑ BTW, there's a good chance that your doctor is (partially) on the payroll of the pharmaceutical companies.
