Introducing the MySQL Community Server and the MySQL Enterprise Server

[Kaj Arnö]

Dear user of MySQL,

Today we have announced (*) a new flagship commercial offering from our 
company, called MySQL Enterprise. I want to explain to you why we are 
making these changes to our business -- and to the delivery of our software.

We recognise that the needs of the MySQL Community are different from 
the needs of commercial enterprise customers. After 11 years of 
producing our software, we can no longer hope that a single offering is 
the best solution for both Community and Enterprise users. Consequently, 
we are introducing two different offerings for each distinct target group.

The MySQL Community Server is:

* for the Open Source fluent audience, do-it-yourself (DIY)
* for those who don’t need support
* free-of-charge

The MySQL Enterprise Server is:

* for the non-DIY commercial user
* part of the ‘MySQL Enterprise’ subscription offering
* for those who want extra help developing, deploying and managing MySQL DBs
* coupled with access to MySQL technical support
* assisted by new automated DBA monitoring and advisory services

With this differentiation, we aim to better serve both categories of 
MySQL users -- those who are willing to spend time to save money, and 
those who are willing to spend money to save time.

If our changes succeed in their objective, both audiences will benefit 
from a more stable, feature-rich and high-quality database. The open 
source benefits for each of the audiences mutually reinforce each other:

* Community users get new features at no-cost to them -- funded by 
paying customers
* Enterprise users get a more stable, reliable and predictably-released 
product -- thanks to community participation

Each of these components of the virtuous circle of open source 
contributes to the development and spreading of a better MySQL for everyone.

By the name MySQL Enterprise, we want to make clear that this is the 
offering we expect business users of MySQL to be interested in: Are you 
using MySQL in a production enterprise setting? Go for MySQL Enterprise!

We believe the users of MySQL Community Server expect

* early access to MySQL features under development
* that MySQL AB will listen to their input
* timely corrections to bug fixes they report
* help with enhancing MySQL for their particular needs
* channels to communicate with the rest of community for getting assistance
* an easier process for having contributions accepted in MySQL
* commitment to Open Source — including free, unrestricted availability 
of source code

and this is what we will continue to deliver.

We’re happy to note the growth in contributions flowing into MySQL and 
its ecosystem. To facilitate these, we have

* launched MySQL Forge (see forge.mysql.com)
* established a Contribution License Agreement (see 
MySQL_Contributor_License_Agreement on Forge Wiki)
* supported a MySQL Community Camp (see mysqlcamp.org)
* started to Doxygen comment our code for easier understandability (see 
CommunityDoxygenProject on Forge Wiki)

and this is now showing results:

* 159 Forge projects by 58 distinct contributors
* 44 Forge snippets by 25 distinct contributors
* 361 forge users registered
* 1696 distinct Forge Wiki page titles
* 184 Forge wiki contributors
* MySQL Server kernel contributions accepted, such as Jeremy Cole’s

On top of this, we expect to soon launch a competition for voting on the 
look-and-feel of our new MySQL Community Server logotype and Web site. 
We will also be establishin a pilot program for MySQL Quality Assurance 
contributors. Most importantly, we’re launching the MySQL Winter of Code 
program, featuring the Connectors Contest and the Storage Engines 
Encounters, which I will be telling you about separately next week.

Technically, the MySQL Enterprise Server inherits the current MySQL 
5.0.26 code base, as does the MySQL Community Server. However, we will 
be encouraging and incorporating contributions in the form of minor 
enhancements and experimental features already into the 5.0 version of 
MySQL Community Server. This way, contributors don’t have to wait until 
the next major release for their improvements to get into use, and 
enterprise users can continue using 5.0 without seeing any 
destabilisation of the code base due to new functionality being introduced.

As part of our differentiation, we will do more frequent binary releases 
of the MySQL Enterprise Server software than of the MySQL Community 
Server. However, all of our database software is open source, so we will 
continue to make all releases available over our BitKeeper tree and as 
source code tarballs -- even if the MySQL Enterprise Server binaries 
will not be available for public download but limited to our commercial 
customers and our core QA contributors.

Finally, we will continue to be active good citizens in the greater Free 
and Open Source Software world. We’re participating in the GPLv3 
drafting process, we’re supporting the Free Software Foundation as FSF 
corporate patrons, and we’re supporting campaigns against the spread of 
software patents around the globe.

So: Look at today’s press release (*) on MySQL Enterprise, which 
describes our new flagship commercial offering, directed at paying 
enterprise customers. It refers to the MySQL Network Monitoring & 
Advisory Services, which is a commercial only offering we are about to 
launch. In due course, I’ll be sharing more about that with you. Stay 
tuned, and please give me your feedback on what you think (including 
private email)!

Kaj Arnö
VP Community Relations
MySQL AB