Though most Linux fans know Helsinki as the birthplace of Linux, it’s also home to an open source project that may shake up the proprietary database market just as much as Linux has affected the Unix world and the market for operating systems. Named after Michael “Monty” Widenius’s daughter, My (pronounced “me”), MySQL first saw life in 1983 as part of a proprietary application that Widenius wrote for his consulting firm, TCX DataKonsult AB. From the start, MySQL’s focus on speed and ease of use made it an ideal tool for TCX. A dozen years later, when Widenius and MySQL co-author David Axmark released the database under an open source license, they also created an ideal database for the Linux community. Today, MySQL boasts over four million users and the company that Widenius and Axmark started to support its development — MySQL AB — employs a staff of 65.
This spring, MySQL held its first-ever user conference in San Jose, California, where the growing community of MySQL users and independent software vendors gathered to learn the latest about their favorite open source database. Linux Magazine was there, and Editor-at-Large Robert McMillan met with Widenius just after Widenius had announced the alpha release of MySQL 5.0.
LINUX MAGAZINE: When we interviewed Larry Ellison a while back, he told us that he didn’t see you as a competitor. “The people who use MySQL are not the people who…
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