We have just published an interview with our CEO Mårten Mickos on our Developer Zone, where he answers a number of questions from the Community Team about Sun's plans to acquire MySQL AB and what this means for the MySQL User Community and the direction of the product (thanks to Colin for compiling and editing the text). I hope that the comments help to calm the concerns of some people about the future of MySQL with regards to Open Source, support of platforms or language bindings:
CT: Is MySQL fully committed to free and open source software, and the GPL?
Mårten: Yes.
CT: What does the Sun acquisition mean for Linux support? What about Windows, Mac OS/X and other platforms?
Mårten: One of the reasons for us to be interested to discuss an acquisition with Sun was their new strategy to work with technologies and companies that previously had been seen as competitors. Our mandate within Sun is to grow our database business - on all operating systems and with all development and scripting languages and on all hardware platforms. Linux remains the most important operating system for our business. Windows remains the top operating system among our downloads. Mac OS X is a vital platform and many of our own engineers use Mac notebooks.
CT: Will all the language bindings still be supported? i.e Will PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc. be treated as well as Java?
Mårten: Absolutely. See my previous answer. Our goal and mandate is to grow our business on all fronts.
I personally am very excited about this change and expect many good things to come out of it. Sun is really trying hard to "not screw this up" (quoting Jonathan Schwartz).
UPDATE: I just stumbled over another article about this topic, which I also consider recommended reading: Mårten Mickos: Why Did I Change My Mind?:
I may sound naively excited about Sun in my writing here, and perhaps I am. Perhaps I drank the Kool-Aid along with the traditional Swedish vodka shot when we closed the deal. But in my life and my professional career so far, I have never regretted using my gut instinct to choose between two rational alternatives.
