MariaDB Fixes Business Source License, Releases MaxScale 2.1 (perens.com) 17
Creator of The Open Source Definition and longtime Slashdot reader Bruce Perens writes: MariaDB is releasing MaxScale 2.1, a new version of their database routing proxy, and has modified its timed-transition-to-Open-Source "Business Source License" to make it more acceptable to the Open Source community and more easily usable by other companies. I've blogged the issues I had with the license and how MariaDB has fixed them, and Kaj Arno has blogged the MariaDB side of the story. Here's an excerpt from Perens' blog post: "The BSL is a parameterized license. The licensor chooses the license which is transitioned to, the date of the transition, and the limitation. The problem with this is that it was so parameterized that if you told someone the license was 'BSL 1.0,' they would not have any idea what license they really had. It might transition to any of 100 Open Source licenses, or to a non-Open-Source license. The transition might happen in a month, or next century. The limitation might be that you could only have three commercial servers, or that you indentured your firstborn son (OK, that's going overboard, but you get the picture)." He continues, "So, I didn't like that 'BSL' didn't really say what the license did, and I didn't feel that was the best thing for the users or the community. I asked MariaDB to fix it. Together we have arrived at constraints on the parameters and minimum privileges that will take the new BSL much closer to being one license while still allowing licensors some latitude to choose parameters."
Frosty (Score:1)
Got a frosty psit because I don't use joins and I wwrite to /dev/null!
More Sleight of Hand... (Score:3)
..to try to obscure the the fact that they don't actually *own* the source to MySQL, and never will. Any changes or additions they make make to it still have to be (a) made available under GPL and (b) given back to Oracle.
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This is not about MySQL or MariaDB (the product) source code though. This is about the MaxScale proxy which is a totally different product. It used the original MySQL SQL parser in its 1.x release, which is still released under the GPL. MaxScale 2.0, which is BSL-Licensed, no longer contains any MySQL code any more.
Any changes made to the actual server product will continue to be under GPL for the reason you've given. Nothing needs ot be given back to Oracle though. The changes are obviously available to Or
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So MaxScale 2.0 is not freely available for use then?
Probably safer to stick with Percona's ProxySQL https://github.com/sysown/proxysql [github.com]
Seems like the BS in BSL isn't business source.
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You are of course welcome to use whatever you want, as long as you comply with the license. In the case of ProxySQL, that's the GPL. Percona appears to be one person, one René Cannaò, and it looks like he's interested in selling his consulting services. If you are actually making money from using his product, please consider throwing some work his way.
Like I said, Open Source developers should not have to wear hair shirts while their users, sometimes the most profitable companies on Wall Stree
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It used the original MySQL SQL parser in its 1.x release, which is still released under the GPL. MaxScale 2.0, which is BSL-Licensed, no longer contains any MySQL code any more.
I don't understand why any company would use parts of the MySQL code base when the PostgreSQL code base has a far more open license. Just use the Postgre SQL parser instead. Maybe I'm confused about the Postgre license but it seems like a pretty easy choice, and the one I would make if I was developing a new open source or even commercial database (in the 1.0 release anyway).
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"You cannot fix the software that you currently run." ... but you can. You get the source. BSL is about usage restrictions, not about not getting the source.
I agree that it is not a true open source license (I'd call it "Eventually Open Source").
But it is not a closed source license either.
It's restrictions are about using the binaries produced from the source, not about seeing or touching the source itself. If you have permission to run it you also automatically have permission to modify and fix it in any
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If you buy the product from MariaDB then you are not using it for free, so the usage limitation "Usage of the software is free when your application uses the Software with a total of less than three database server instances for production purposes." doesn't apply to you.
So no different LICENSE.TXT needed. You can use your modified version internally up to the number of instances you've licensed, you can also publish modified source ("fork it on github"), but others who use your fork are still bound to "tot
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BSL seems like more of the same to me.
Monty has had a habit of playing silly buggers with the GPL (and FOSS licensing in general) right from the earliest days of MySQL - he wanted the PR and code-contribution benefits of the GPL but liked to deceive people that, even though mysql was GPL, a commercial license was required if the software was used for commercial purposes. This lie was pushed for many years on the official mysql web site, in documentation and other support material, and by mysql employees on
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But you *can* touch:
"Subject to the Use Limitation, Licensor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide (subject to applicable laws) license to copy, modify, display, use, create derivative works, and redistribute the Software until the Change Date."
See? "modify" and "create derivated works" is especially allowed.
On the other hand the "free ride" usage condition is actually "less than three database servers", so your "can't even deploy it on more than three servers" is not correct, it actually is "no more than