Progress Software, a supplier of database technologies and tools to third party software developers, has announced that it has created a subsidiary dedicated to distributing the open source code database system, MySQL.
NuSphere will build on its parent company's expertise in database and tools to generate an open and free version of the system dubbed, NuSphere MySQL. It is the first firm created to support the fledgling relational system and produce additional products around it.
Progress officials reached an agreement with the principal open source developers of MySQL to release the system under a General Public License, an open source code license that prohibits anyone using the code to sell it as a commercial product. Linux and GNU development tools from Richard Stallman's Free Software Foundation are also issued under GPLs.
"This is a great thing for MySQL and will enable us to take MySQL to the next level," said Michael Widenius, one of the lead MySQL developers.
The popularity of the open source database system has been quietly growing. O'Reilly and Associates recently published a book on MySQL that made it into the top 100 best sellers at Amazon.com. "MySQL has been chosen by such companies as Silicon Graphics and the Department of the Navy for internal applications," said WJ Gilmore in an article published recently on the O'Reilly Network.
