Blackhacker

BetaNews | Sun to spend $1B to acquire MySQL, will compete with Oracle, Microsoft
One of the principal products in the LAMP open source arsenal will become a Sun Microsystems product, possibly by the end of this quarter.When discussing enterprise database installations worldwide, as of today, it will be impossible not to consider Sun Microsystems along with Microsoft and Oracle. This morning, Sun announced it has reached an agreement with MySQL — which by some accounts may have become the producer of the most widely installed database, under everyone’s noses — in a deal expected to be closed as soon as this March.

This can be either very good or very bad. Anytime a major firm like Sun, is willing to invest in an OSS project its great for the project, but now they will be able to run it as well. That could be disastrous. From reading the article, Sun has big plans to use MySQL to shake up their product line. There also seems to be a disconnect between MySQL and Sun over what changes will take place for MySQL after the acquisition. It is never good when the acquired seems to be in the dark about the nature there organization after the acquisition is done. That smells like a lot of people leaving to me. I’ve been wrong before, and I hope I am again about this.

Sun Set To Move On GPL License For Open-Source Java - Sun Microsystems, General Public License, Software - CRN
The company is very close to announcing that it will put the mobile (ME) and standard (SE) editions of the Java platform into the GNU General Public License (GPL), with the Java Enterprise Edition and GlassFish reference implementation (currently open-sourced under Sun’s Common Development and Distribution License, or CDDL) to follow, several industry sources said.

I really am waiting on baited breath for this. Once it goes GPL I can find have NATIVE Java on my FreeBSD box at home without out having to jump through a lot of hoops to to install it.

Dap: osnews

This is a cool idea. Google is offering a “bounty’ of $4500 for students who complete an open source project. The idea is to get new developers thinking about and involved in creating and contributing to the OSS community. (Not to mention it gives them a first look look at new employees. )