License question

I did a quick search on the mailing list and didn’t really find my 
answer, so I am posting it to this list…

I’d like to apologize for my lack in understanding all this license 
stuff. I am not an open source developer, I am a commercial developer, 
so this is the first time I have even looked to use open source software 
at all.

We are a small company that develops specialized applications. We use a 
development language that has its own shared file database (like 
access). This is less than ideal in a lot of cases. We don’t really 
charge for our software, we charge for the time we take to make the 
software. Essentially, we have no product, we have a service. However, 
we are a commercial for-profit entity. We have found our built in 
database to be problematic and prone to index corruption. Plus the fact 
when people ask us what we use, we get funny looks, and sometimes told 
we can’t install that on their server because they have never heard of 
it before.

We started to look at alternatives. One of those was the MSDE from 
Microsoft. I started a conversion of a large customer only to find out 
that we hit the 2 gig limit before it even got installed (converted 
their current data). We started to look at prices of the full version of 
SQL Server and the pricing is going to put it out of reach for some of 
our customers. The larger ones will have no problem paying for it, but 
most of our customers are small businesses that just can’t afford it. I 
realize it’s a small price to pay, but you also have to realize that 
with our development language, we have to charge our end users a per 
user runtime fee (that gets paid to the company that makes our 
development language) and a per user fee to connect to any database 
other than the default (again, to the company that made our development 
language). By the time we are done, a 25 user system has a per user cost 
of over $5,000 for the database and the runtime fees. Then when you tack 
on our fees for software modifications, this just put it out of reach 
for the smaller customers. Also keep in mind; we are in process of 
dumping our current language for VB.Net, simply because of these stupid 
fees that our customers have to pay to the company that wrote our 
development environment.

We are looking for alternatives that are reliable, fairly fast, and easy 
to maintain. We immediately thought of MySQL, but the commercial 
licenses have now gone to an annual subscription structure. The basic 
version is fairly cheap, and very reasonable. However, the data 
connector that we have to pay for to get MySQL access will cost our end 
users $3500 for a 25 user system. On the other hand, we can use an ODBC 
connector for $1,000, which puts it back into the somewhat affordable 
range. Once it’s moved to VB.Net, all of these fees will be eliminated, 
but that is pretty far off.

This brings me here. I have heard of PostGreSQL, so it’s not new to me. 
But all this licensing is. And maybe you can help get some clarification 
for the MySQL licensing too.

We will not be selling the database software. We may install it for 
them, though. In fact, most of the time, we will be the ones to install 
it, and we charge for that time. Our customers are very aware that we 
did not write it, nor are we selling it. Even if they are to purchase 
SQL Server, they are the ones to purchase it directly, not us. We 
purchase the connectivity kits that we use to connect to the database, 
and then pass that cost on to the customer. It is purchased in their 
name with their information. We do not charge extra or tack on any fees. 
We do it this way so that no screw ups are made… The connectivity kit is 
the one that connects to the database; we connect to the connectivity 
kit through our software.

Knowing all this, what do we need to purchase, what can we do and what 
can’t we do? It’s hard getting a straight answer from anyone that is why 
I am here. If we can’t do it, we won’t. If we can save our customers 
some money while getting them really good options and software, we would 
like to do that. But on the same token, we don’t to do anything unfair 
or illegal.


Thank you for your time.

Aaron