MySQL faithful launch OurSQL Foundation to keep Oracle honest

Summary

Databases MySQL faithful launch OurSQL Foundation to keep Oracle honest Community group wants transparency, collaboration, and a clearer roadmap for the open source database A community claiming to represent the interests of MySQL users and developers has launched the OurSQL Foundation, with the aim of presenting a united front to Oracle, which owns the intellectual property behind the popular open source database.The new nonprofit says it will help the MySQL community access knowledge and provide feedback on future development in a transparent and consistent way. The community organization also claims it will support the growth and use of MySQL as an open source database and collaborate with all players in the market, including Oracle, to see it succeed with the next generation of developers and applications.In February, the group behind the launch invited Oracle to take part in plans to create an independent foundation to guide development of MySQL. The move was prompted by concerns about MySQL's declining popularity and market share relative to PostgreSQL Under Oracle's management, MySQL's development lacks transparency and largely takes place behind closed doors through private code drops, "with limited visibility into the roadmap or decision-making," the group said in an open letter.In March, Oracle – which acquired the open source RDBMS with the Sun Microsystems buyout in 2009 – put forward a new approach to engaging developers and promised features supporting vector search.Big Red published a blog post that aimed to assure the community that "MySQL is fundamental to our data strategy."Peter Zaitsev, co-founder of open source consultancy Percona, one of the organizations behind the OurSQL Foundation, said Oracle had been signaling it was more open to having a conversation about the future of the database. "We know that many members of this foundation are having discussions with Oracle, contributing code, and so on," he said. "Also, this is not an anti-Oracle e...