Oracle’s proposed acquisition of Sun Microsystems looks set for approval by the European Commission after the competition commission welcomed commitments from Oracle related to the future development and licensing of the open source MySQL database.

The EC has until January 27, 2010, to reach a final decision however it appears that significant progress has been made following hearings in Brussels last week where Oracle made its case for approving the acquisition and opponents including SAP, Microsoft and Monty Program AB argued against the proposed acquisition.

Oracle has published a list of ten commitments that it is prepared to make to assuage the EC’s concerns over the future of MySQL, which were quickly and enthusiastically welcomed by the European Commission.

Oracle’s commitments …

Sun updates Java platform. Red Hat open sources SPICE. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

For the latest on Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL via Sun, see Everything you always wanted to know about MySQL but were afraid to ask

# Sun has released Java Platform EE 6, Glassfish 3, and NetBeans 6.8.

# Red Hat released its …

Matt Asay is right, in my opinion, to point out the inherent bias in the case Monty Widenius et al have made against Oracle’s potential ownership of MySQL. I would go further, however, in stating that the case being made against Oracle is flawed by the fact that it is so self-serving. For instance:

• I previously noted that the Widenius/Mueller case against Oracle owning Sun/MySQL is entirely dependent on the theory that Oracle will not invest in the ongoing development of MySQL, which is something it has publicly committed to doing.

• The case against Oracle owning Sun is also based on the theory …

1. Scriblio -- open source CMS and catalogue built on WordPress, with faceted search and browse. (via titine on Delicious)
2. Useful Temporal Functions and Queries -- SQL tricksies for those working with timeseries data. (via mbiddulph on Delicious)
3. Optimal Starting Prices for Negotiations and Auctions --Mind Hacks discussion of a research paper on whether high or low initial prices lead to higher price outcomes in negotiations and online auctions. Many negotiation books recommend waiting for the other side to …

FOSDEM 2010, the annual Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting will take place again on February 6th and 7th in Brussels, Belgium. Next year they will celebrate their 10th anniversary (congratulations!) and we feel very honored and happy to announce that the organizers accepted our request for a developer room! They had to reject many proposals due to the great demand (there were 39 applications, but there are only 12 rooms available per day). Therefore we are glad to be among the excellent projects that will be present there.

Our devroom is titled "MySQL and Friends" and will be available for sessions on Sunday, 7th from 09:00 - 17:00. It will be located in room AW1.121 and provides 81 seats, a video projector with VGA cable, and wireless Internet. As for …

Palm sued for GPL violation. Wind River launches Android distro. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

For the latest on Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL via Sun, see Everything you always wanted to know about MySQL but were afraid to ask

# Palm sued by Artifex over alleged GPL violation.

# Bradley M Kuhn described “The Anatomy of a Modern GPL Violation.”

# Wind River …

Topics for this podcast:

*As the Oracle-Sun-MySQL EC world turns
*Google gets its Web on with Go and Chrome
*Open source and cloud computing complement, compete
*How transparent is your open core?

iTunes or direct download (26:20, 6.0 MB)

Eben Moglen says EC case against Oracle-Sun is flawed. The value of open source. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

For the latest on Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL via Sun, see Everything you always wanted to know about MySQL but were afraid to ask

# Eben Moglen told the EC he does not see threat to competition from Oracle-Sun, says EC’s objections are flawed. A statement from the SFLC is …

Everyone seems to have an opinion about whether Oracle should be allowed to acquire the MySQL database along with Sun Microsystems including former MySQL/Sun executives, developers, rivals, partners, analysts, journalists, the Department of Justice and even US Senators. What do open source software users think?

We asked the members of the “CAOS user community”* to tell what they thought of the proposed deal, as well as share some details on current database usage. The results have been published in the form of a 451 Group report (subscribers only) but here’s some of the headline figures:

• The use of MySQL is expected to decline from 82.1% of the 347 respondents today as 78.7% expect to be using it in 2011, declining to 72.3% 2014.

• The proposed acquisition of MySQL by Oracle has a part to play in …

Banking on open source. Open source as a business model. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

For the latest on Oracle’s acquisition of MySQL via Sun, see Everything you always wanted to know about MySQL but were afraid to ask

Banking on open source
# CIOL.com reported on the benefits of Standard Chartered Bank’s open source-based core banking system.

Open source as a business model
The “open source has failed as a …