Andrew --
> And the last point is the rub: if you fork MySQL, you can't use the
> MySQL name. So you can't talk about your satisfied customers who are
> using MySQL, because you've forked.
Also don't forget that currently 100% of the developers on the MySQL core
engine work for MySQL AB. As such, it would be really, really hard for a
forked project to develop the expertise to maintain it. Firebird only
survived because one of the original InterBase developers joined them.
It's like OpenOffice.org. Technically, another company could fork it away
from Sun. But Sun doesn't worry about it, because over half the project
leaders work for them and 100% of the people who have been coding on the
project since its inception. No one else has the expertise.
--
-Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco