The SkySQL and MariaDB Roadshow Comes to Germany:

Stuttgart 25 January 2013, 9.00-16.00, Sodexo STEP / Engineering Park

Hamburg 1 February 2013, 9.00-16.00, Quality Ambassador Hotel

SkySQL and Monty Program are on the road with our first joint – free – roadshows in Stuttgart and Hamburg, where Monty Widenius will unveil his vision of the future of the MySQL database via MariaDB (the talk will be in English).

In addition, speakers from Codership / Galera expected, as well SkySQL experts and customer speakers.

The latest trends around the MySQL and MariaDB databases will be discussed, in cloud and high …

• Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius, David Axmark, and Allan Larsson announce MariaDB Foundation
• Leading organizations pledge EUR1M to launch not-for-profit organization
• Further sponsors sought; Board elections to be held February 2013

Percona Live Conference, London – December 4, 2012 –The founders of the most popular databases on the web, Michael Widenius, David Axmark, and Allan Larsson today announced the formation of the MariaDB Foundation. “MariaDB continues the project started 18 years ago when we founded MySQL, with code maintained by the same dedicated core team. The time is right for an independent organisation to to safeguard the interests of MariaDB users and developers as we head towards MariaDB 10” said David Axmark.

“The MariaDB Foundation has the potential to become a new beacon for the MySQL ecosystem. SkySQL is …

On Friday last week, after the intensive days of the conference, Ars Technica wrote and published a nice article about MariaDB including many of the messages we had been delivering during the conference, http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/04/mysql-founders-latest-mariadb-release-takes-enterprise-features-open-source.ars.

MariaDB seals

Last year, when it became clear that O’Reilly wasn’t going to arrange the MySQL user conference in the future, there was a lot of discussion on who should arrange it. In the end Percona was pretty fast informing everyone that they had booked the convention center in Santa Clara to arrange the conference this year. Now with the …

Monty gave a keynote on Wednesday morning, on the State of MariaDB. He’s also just posted his thoughts and updates from the conference. Check out his slide deck embedded blow, and don’t forget you can also watch the video (running time ~30 minutes).

State of MariaDB View more presentations from Monty Program

For more than nine years, I worked for MySQL AB and its successors, Sun Microsystems and Oracle. I handed in my resignation late June, two days before Sun’s German legal entity ceased to exist. Germany isn’t a country where you quit HP one day and join Oracle the next, so I had a long summer with plenty of so-called Garden Leave. Last Thursday was my last day, and I’m now outside MySQL AB, outside Sun Microsystems, outside Oracle.

Like all the many former colleagues who resigned before me, I did so with mixed feelings. Leaving the colleagues, finding freedom, I think you follow. The topmost feeling I have, the one I want to highlight right now, is gratitude. I’m very grateful for what MySQL AB has meant for my career, my personal development, my life experiences, my social life. Let me mention a small subset of the people that made my life at MySQL AB, and later Sun Microsystems, a truly memorable …

Open Source Bridge dubs itself as the conference for open source citizens. It happens June 1-4 2010, in beautiful Portland, Oregon. The young event (it celebrates its second birthday this year), seems to already have a great database track.

From Monty Program Ab, we have Monty himself leading a session on The State of MariaDB. So if you want to go meet the creator of MySQL, the founder of MariaDB, or just taste some Salmiakki vodka, you certainly want to be there at Open Source Bridge.

Recently (on April 19, 2010), Monty gave a Google Tech Talk, titled: MariaDB: The Backward Compatible Branch of the MySQL Database Server. The talk is under 47-minutes long, and the video is embedded below. Its a good introduction to what MariaDB has been up to for the last year+, aims, goals, and the future.

MySQL is undergoing some organisational changes as part of Sun. Mårten Mickos (MySQL AB’s CEO 2001-2008 and SVP at Sun 2008-) is moving on in his life, outside Sun. This is independent of Michael “Monty” Widenius’ recent departure.

I’ve worked for Mårten ever since joining MySQL in 2001, in various capacities (VP Training, VP Consulting, VP Services, VP Engineering, CIO, and since 2005 VP Community Relations). I will obviously miss working with him. At the same time, I can understand and respect his decision to move on to something else, and wish him all the best, whatever his upcoming pursuits will be.

I owe Mårten much of what I’ve achieved in business during this century. I’ve known him since 1981, and counted him as a close friend ever …

ValleyWag reports that MySQL’s Monty Widenius is no longer “MySQL’s”. Some folks have known that Monty has not been happy in his current position; this leads me to believe the rumor is true (though of course an official announcement is the only confirmation).

So what does this mean for MySQL? Well, honestly, if a product falls apart because one out of 300 employees leaves, it was probably doomed anyway. There are plenty of capable employees left, and being owned by Sun means that there are many more resources they can tap as well.

What will the official company announcement be? My prediction is (more…)

My friend Monty (of MySQL fame) has started blogging at http://monty-says.blogspot.com/. After just a day, he already has two posts ? one on the Sun acquisition of MySQL and a longer one on the new Maria engine.

If you are interested in MySQL, you should definitely check the blog out.