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K1 Buys MariaDB

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Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#71

Post by packetlost »

stephenr wrote: post #63
stackskipton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d say less. This acquisition screams that some MBA looked at their financials, saw money left on table, likely by not completely screwing over customers, and said, let’s do this! Think Broadcom/VMware on smaller scale. You don’t put yourself in debt and replace the CEO unless you see some value not currently being realized. They might even try license shenanigans but with GPLv2, not sure what they can do.

It's a weird scenario where a bunch of people bemoaned Oracle owning MySQL (hence MariaDB exists), and yet Oracle have maintained and allowed MySQL to see huge improvements, and they include their sql proxy under GPL as well. As a weird twist of coincidence and irony, MariaDB's sql proxy is BSL only. I don't think either license is a reason to use/not use the respective DB system (HAproxy exists) but it's always funn…

Oracle is kind of a shitty company to deal with, but they seem to be doing relatively well with open source these days.

Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#72

Post by arp242 »

re-thc wrote: post #64
arp242 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have been using PostgreSQL for decades for web stuff. I think the first time I used it was around 2003 or so. The project goes back to 1996 (and even that was based on previous code going back to 1982). I'm not saying PostgreSQL is perfect or the best choice for everything. That's obviously stupid. But claiming it's a "hype" is not a serious comment.

> But claiming it's a "hype" is not a serious comment. Maybe you're missing the context (it's a chain of replies)? I never said PostgreSQL was bad or that people shouldn't use it. The original comment I was responding to inferred that "every web developer" was now using PostgreSQL and that part is definitely due to the "hype" - whether social media, youtube or blogs, etc. Well there's also the who's providing a "free…

> The original comment I was responding to inferred that "every web developer" was now using PostgreSQL

No one used to word "every'. It merely stated that "more" web dev stuff uses PostgreSQL, which is not the same as "every" at all. You "inferred" that word from your negativity, cynicism, and some sort of psychological need to spread your toxic bile.

Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#73

Post by justinclift »

mathnode wrote: post #16
floating-io wrote: post #8

For those who are using MariaDB in a business context: does this make you more or less likely to choose it for your next project? I don't know anything about K1, so all I have is confusion (and a sudden urge to switch entirely to postgres).

From my POV, it's a supplier that is no longer beholden to shareholders demands for profit. A platform and service that can operate using customer sourced revenue and respond to market demand without a profit driven board is a big win for everyone while funding development and maintenance of a great open source project.

> it's a supplier that is no longer beholden to shareholders demands for profit.

That doesn't seem correct. It's now owned by a single shareholder, that's literally a financial organisation of the kind likely to turn the screws until the last drop of blood is gone.

Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#74

Post by re-thc »

arp242 wrote: post #72
re-thc wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But claiming it's a "hype" is not a serious comment. Maybe you're missing the context (it's a chain of replies)? I never said PostgreSQL was bad or that people shouldn't use it. The original comment I was responding to inferred that "every web developer" was now using PostgreSQL and that part is definitely due to the "hype" - whether social media, youtube or blogs, etc. Well there's also the who's providing a "free…

> The original comment I was responding to inferred that "every web developer" was now using PostgreSQL No one used to word "every'. It merely stated that "more" web dev stuff uses PostgreSQL, which is not the same as "every" at all. You "inferred" that word from your negativity, cynicism, and some sort of psychological need to spread your toxic bile.

> It merely stated that "more" web dev stuff uses PostgreSQL

Merely?

Here, quote: "It must be tough for the business, as more and more"... that sounds like an alarming trend?

How do you get to merely? If it's merely it won't be tough for businesses?

> You "inferred" that word from your negativity, cynicism, and some sort of psychological need to spread your toxic bile.

Now we're down to personal attacks? And where did you infer your drama from? Right, the pot calls the kettle black.

Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#75

Post by justinclift »

floating-io wrote: post #32
garciasn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re both great systems but there are a few differences primarily in small ways for most applications: Maria supports partitioning, Postgres (as of my last knowledge) does not. Unstructured data is more flexible in Maria natively, but Postgres can support it in a variety of ways. You can find lists and lists of head to head comparisons out there which will highlight all of the niche differences that each brings ov…

> Maria supports partitioning, Postgres (as of my last knowledge) does not. PostgreSQL's manual indicates that partitioning is a thing[1]. Is the something different than what you're thinking of? One of my projects has the need to drop millions of rows a month based on the time period, and I've been considering a switch to postgres because they also have a module that will do that automatically. What am I missing? [1…

> based on the time period

Is it the kind of thing where the TimescaleDB extension would make sense?

https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb

Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#77

Post by re-thc »

stephenr wrote: post #63
stackskipton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d say less. This acquisition screams that some MBA looked at their financials, saw money left on table, likely by not completely screwing over customers, and said, let’s do this! Think Broadcom/VMware on smaller scale. You don’t put yourself in debt and replace the CEO unless you see some value not currently being realized. They might even try license shenanigans but with GPLv2, not sure what they can do.

It's a weird scenario where a bunch of people bemoaned Oracle owning MySQL (hence MariaDB exists), and yet Oracle have maintained and allowed MySQL to see huge improvements, and they include their sql proxy under GPL as well. As a weird twist of coincidence and irony, MariaDB's sql proxy is BSL only. I don't think either license is a reason to use/not use the respective DB system (HAproxy exists) but it's always funn…

> and yet Oracle have maintained and allowed MySQL to see huge improvements

In the latest twist Oracle is adding things other Heatwave and not MySQL i.e. not open source.

It's an ever-changing situation.

> (hence MariaDB exists)

That's sort of the old take. Lots of new features aren't compatible on both sides. MariaDB has diverged. It just hasn't gained enough traction for those things to matter.

Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#78

Post by floating-io »

justinclift wrote: post #75
floating-io wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maria supports partitioning, Postgres (as of my last knowledge) does not. PostgreSQL's manual indicates that partitioning is a thing[1]. Is the something different than what you're thinking of? One of my projects has the need to drop millions of rows a month based on the time period, and I've been considering a switch to postgres because they also have a module that will do that automatically. What am I missing? [1…

> based on the time period Is it the kind of thing where the TimescaleDB extension would make sense? https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb

In my case, pg_partman is actually more than enough. It's just a situation where the data isn't useful after a certain point. Timescale as I understand it would be massive overkill for my situation.

Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#79

Post by stephenr »

re-thc wrote: post #77
stephenr wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a weird scenario where a bunch of people bemoaned Oracle owning MySQL (hence MariaDB exists), and yet Oracle have maintained and allowed MySQL to see huge improvements, and they include their sql proxy under GPL as well. As a weird twist of coincidence and irony, MariaDB's sql proxy is BSL only. I don't think either license is a reason to use/not use the respective DB system (HAproxy exists) but it's always funn…

> and yet Oracle have maintained and allowed MySQL to see huge improvements In the latest twist Oracle is adding things other Heatwave and not MySQL i.e. not open source. It's an ever-changing situation. > (hence MariaDB exists) That's sort of the old take. Lots of new features aren't compatible on both sides. MariaDB has diverged. It just hasn't gained enough traction for those things to matter.

> That's sort of the old take. Lots of new features aren't compatible on both sides.

If by "the old take" you mean "the stated reason they created the fork" then sure. I guess everyone's a revisionist when it's convenient.

Re: K1 Buys MariaDB

#80

Post by evanelias »

stackskipton wrote: post #37
floating-io wrote: post #8

For those who are using MariaDB in a business context: does this make you more or less likely to choose it for your next project? I don't know anything about K1, so all I have is confusion (and a sudden urge to switch entirely to postgres).

I’d say less. This acquisition screams that some MBA looked at their financials, saw money left on table, likely by not completely screwing over customers, and said, let’s do this! Think Broadcom/VMware on smaller scale. You don’t put yourself in debt and replace the CEO unless you see some value not currently being realized. They might even try license shenanigans but with GPLv2, not sure what they can do.

I'm usually skeptical of private equity, but in this case I see reasons to not be immediately cynical. The purchase price was only ~$37 million USD, which is quite reasonable considering MariaDB's reach and potential.

MariaDB plc has some really talented C++ engineers who are experts in database internals. Their DB has some compelling features that many competitors lack, for example system-versioned tables, Oracle DB compatibility layer, and soon a really nice multi-tenancy feature (catalogs). MariaDB plc has a strong presence in Europe, which I would assume is very appealing for potential European customers. And now they finally have an owner with deeper pockets, which hasn't been true in recent history; their previous financial state likely hindered commercial adoption.

If MariaDB can execute well on support and services, I'd imagine their new owners can get a good return on their investment as-is. No need for squeezing and strip-mining them, I don't see how that would even work in this case.

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