Will MySQL Keep Lighting up LAMP?

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On January 16th this year Sun Microsystems announced the purchase of MySQL, world's most popular open source database software. So what does this mean to countless developers who rely on this free tool to house their data? This question will be coming more and more relevant as todays powerful open source projects begin to get acquired by for-profit corporations.

MySQL is part of a very popular set of software called LAMP stack. LAMP stands for Linux, referring to the operating system. Apache, the Web server. MySQL, the database management system (or database server). Perl, Python, and PHP, the programming languages. LAMP is often seen as the best open source solution to compete with proprietary and commercial products, such as Windows, IIS, and .NET. Its open source nature and low cost of deployment make it very attractive for many companies.

The easiest way to see the power and functionality of the LAMP stack in action is to take a look at some of the pre-packaged applications available that use LAMP technology. A well-known example of this is the WordPress blogging system. PHP is the application environment, extracting data from the database and formatting it for display in a Web browser. All of the "articles" or posts are stored in a MySQL database.

Now that Sun owns MySQL, many in the open source community fear the worst. What if Sun makes the database compatible only with its own, proprietary flavor of Unix: Sun Solaris? The article posted on CIO Magazine website addresses these fears.

Former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos, now Sun Microsystems' senior vice president for databases addressed these fears head on: "If we aren't committed (to keeping MySQL Linux compatible and open source) , then any one of you can take the MySQL code and fork it to make a new MySQL product, which I am sure you would do if Sun tried to convert LAMP to SAMP."

For now, at least, there seems to be no concrete reason for LAMP programmers or enterprise users to worry about the future of LAMP applications. While Sun may have had problems with Linux, its continued partnership with Red Hat, its new server partnership with Ubuntu and Mickos' statements, it's clear that Sun/MySQL's recent actions all point to a long and prosperous life for LAMP.