Marten Mickos responds

So my post about MySQL AB and the Cluetrain must have hit a nerve with their CEO Marten Mickos.

Basically he started out not agreeing with me as they do get lots of good information from it.

I said they should make it optional to register, so they don’t lose customers. Basically my point in all was that they are a very Clued up company in most respects, that it was just so out of character of MySQL to do something so old school like and therefore alienating their customers. I suggested a comparing the amount of hits to that page versus the amount of actual registrations. In the end he agreed on some things and it looks like they will take it up to revision.

While I don’t like acting cluetrain transport police, the success of MySQL AB is of utmost importance to many of us for so many reasons that they don’t become just another boring enterprise software vendor. In other words, only your true friends (and little children) tell you the truth.

• They provide a great database for free that we need for our apps (Postgresql is there of course as well, but we all have our preferences)
• They provide low cost support packages that beat anything the competition has (IF we feel we need it)
• They provide a great example for other software vendors to follow
• By pushing into the enterprise world they help provide consulting opportunities for those of us with many years experience with MySQL

So I hope Marten and his team do change this which I’m positive they will. All the best of luck to Mysql 5 and for good orders sake Postgresql as well which is of course also an excellent database.

Have a look through the comments of the above post and you can read for yourself.