Sun + MySQL = BIG MISTAKE; Hello, PostgreSQL

Written on April 21, 2008 by Mike Gerwitz

Sun Microsystems recently announced they will begin making certain parts of MySQL proprietary:

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/16/2337224

As a strong supporter of free software, this will cause some changes in MyCustomBB. Initially, the database backend was going to be designed around MySQL. Now I will be designing it with both MySQL and PostgreSQL in mind, so that if Sun goes too much further, PostgreSQL (an entirely free alternative) can become the default database backend for MCBB. What does this mean? Simply: MCBB will be optimized for both servers. Database support created through modules, while I’ll try to design the system to run them as quickly as possible, will always be a little bit slower than what MyCustomBB was designed to work with. So instead of simply having PostgreSQL be one of those additional modules, it’ll be one of the core modules and will therefore run more quickly.

Either way, MySQL support will never be dropped. This is simply to ensure the free software community has something to fall back on in case MySQL goes further downhill.

Posted in Development