MySQL Commercial pains vs Firebird

GoneShootin

I developed a PHP application for my own use so the free MySQL liscence was grand. But someone is interested in buying the application from me now, and looking at the MySQL Commerical Liscence, I would have to fork out (at the moment) 250euro per server per year. I cant afford it, nor could I justify it.

So I came across something called Firebird, I;ve yet to test it, but it looks promising. Has anyone had any experience with it? And does anyone know if it has a commerical liscence similar to MySQL?

misterq

Are you sure you need a commercial license for MySQL?

PM me with more details if you want, the co. I work for is a MySQL partner, might be able to help.

GoneShootin

misterq wrote:

Are you sure you need a commercial license for MySQL?

Ye I've gone through the licence stuff on their website. The package would be sold with MySQL as a requirement.

mysql.com wrote:

Typical examples of MySQL distribution include:

* Selling software that includes MySQL to customers who install the software on their own machines.
* Selling software that requires customers to install MySQL themselves on their own machines.
* Building a hardware system that includes MySQL and selling that hardware system to customers for installation at their own locations.

Specifically:

* If you include the MySQL server with an application that is not licensed under the GPL or GPL-compatible license, you need a commercial license for the MySQL server.
* If you develop and distribute a commercial application and as part of utilizing your application, the end-user must download a copy of MySQL; for each derivative work, you (or, in some cases, your end-user) need a commercial license for the MySQL server and/or MySQL client libraries.
* If you include one or more of the MySQL drivers in your non-GPL application (so that your application can run with MySQL), you need a commercial license for the driver(s) in question. The MySQL drivers currently include an ODBC driver, a JDBC driver and the C language library.
* GPL users have no direct legal relationship with MySQL AB. The commercial license, on the other hand, is MySQL AB's private license, and provides a direct legal relationship with MySQL AB.

My code will not be distributed as open source - hence the bind.

mneylon

You aren't conflicting with the license as it uses mysql but you are not repackaging mysql.

GoneShootin

How does that not conflict with

If you develop and distribute a commercial application and as part of utilizing your application, the end-user must download a copy of MySQL; for each derivative work, you (or, in some cases, your end-user) need a commercial license for the MySQL server and/or MySQL client libraries.

aidan_walsh

I don't know much about Firebird, but is PostgreSQL out of the question? PHP comes with the extensions included by default making porting pretty simple, and AFAIK the one license they use is based on the Berkley license so you wouldn't own them a cent if used commercially.

sicruise

mySQL is open-source freeware. Under the GNU license you are allowed freely distribute the software and you must not changes that you have made.

It is completely free... the only way you can be charged is if you pay for support.

legalimmigrant

Your PHP app doesn't actually include MySQL. You do not need a commercial MySQL license: that's for software which actually has hooks to MySQL embedded within its source. Calling mysql_connect() in PHP doesn't count.



[FWIW, there's no way on earth that anybody who takes security seriously would buy an encrypted PHP app form an unknown developer and open that web server to the outside world. Just thought I should mention it.]

ai ing

I would say that you should simply license your code under the GPL. It doesnt require much more than supplying the source code and if this company are paying you to do this then they probably dont have the expertise in house anyway. Another option is as aidan said is to go with Postgre

I think the gpl would protect you from them modifing your code in the future as well if its for commercial application (must read new gpl license).

SolarNexus

this should be simple enough, if you can, switch to PostgreSQL -- its got none of those legal trappings and as you know, is a default part of PHP.

link: http://www.postgresql.org/about/licence

PostgreSQL is released under the BSD license.

PostgreSQL Database Management System
(formerly known as Postgres, then as Postgres95)

Portions Copyright (c) 1996-2005, The PostgreSQL Global Development Group

Portions Copyright (c) 1994, The Regents of the University of California

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose, without fee, and without a written agreement is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph and the following two paragraphs appear in all copies.

IN NO EVENT SHALL THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BE LIABLE TO ANY PARTY FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND ITS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE SOFTWARE PROVIDED HEREUNDER IS ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TO PROVIDE MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, UPDATES, ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.

also, heres something to consider:

* If you develop and distribute a commercial application and as part of utilizing your application, the end-user must download a copy of MySQL; for each derivative work, you (or, in some cases, your end-user) need a commercial license for the MySQL server and/or MySQL client libraries.

it could be argued that it is not your application that requires MySQL to be isntalled, but rather PHP requires it. Because your application uses only PHP directly, it does not intrinsically require MySQL to be installed. Though I think this would be quite sticky to argue -- you might want to consider emailing the people over at MySQL.

edit:
you can contact the MySQL team on licesning issues here: http://www.mysql.com/company/contact/?topic=licensing

madramor

1:
the mysql licence costs €200+VAT for a life time licence

2:
there is an exception in the licence for php, so you wouldn't
have to pay for a licence.

3:
"you can contact the MySQL team on licesning issues here: http://www.mysql.com/company/contact/?topic=licensing"
They will say we cannot interpert the licence for you.
Mysql have turned into f**king w**kers, they changed the licence
for the jdbc,odbc drivers so you need to pay for a licence even though
your application only uses MySql be aggregation.
Mysql have added new clauses to the licence, saying you need a
commercial licence if your app. requires the user to download the
Mysql DB is not part of the gpl.

4:
Oracle and Microsoft now provide free beer express editions of their
databases

professore

sicruise wrote:

mySQL is open-source freeware. Under the GNU license you are allowed freely distribute the software and you must not changes that you have made.

It is completely free... the only way you can be charged is if you pay for support.

... only if you give your whole app for free along with it. You could charge for installation I suppose ...

professore

madramor wrote:

Mysql have turned into f**king w**kers, they changed the licence
for the jdbc,odbc drivers so you need to pay for a licence even though
your application only uses MySql be aggregation.

No, they are just trying to make money to pay programmers like you ...

grizzly56

Hello,

I know I am a little late for this thread but I happened to fall on it while googling for something else.

I use Firebird since over 10 years (Interbase it was before being released in open source). In my 25+ years career, I have worked on Oracle, SQL server and many others SQL database server and Firebird (Interbase) stands up very well the comparison with the others.

Interbase is a product that has been around since the mid-80 if I recall well and the first database with multi-generational architecture. That is why it always have been very performant wether it is for reporting or transactional simultaneous activities. It requires very little maintenance if any and has an embeded version.

It supports all (ALL) standard features required by SQL92 compliance and version 2.0 implements many SQL99 features. It has a small footprint and is very stable in Windows and Linux/Unix environment.

I used it with Delphi, .Net and Java application clients and, of course, in Web application.

The problem with Firebird is that there are not many GUI front end for database administration. Few are available under commercial license and one relatively new open-source project (Flame Robin) is still at it's infancy.

Firebird's license are based on the Mozilla Public License 1.1 which means that you can include the product in a commercial distribution without requiring a any special license.

I recommend you visit http://www.firebirdsql.org for more information and read the "Firebird 2 minutes guide" that you can find in the novice section of the site.

Hope this will help everybody to get to know a great product.


Grizzly56


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