It seems we're in good company, as one of MySQL's founders, Monty Widenius, the man who spent the past 27 years creating and working on MySQL, is using his personal blog to incite a mass letter-writing campaign to the European Commission in order to ensure the open-source future of the popular database. We're not the only ones who questioned whether MySQL would "succumb to corporate lameness" after a takeover by a major closed-source competitor. In fact, Widenius speculates that Oracle could close or even kill all or parts of MySQL.

Widenius, who split from Sun earlier this year after -- and entirely because -- MySQL was acquired by Sun, wrote in October about how MySQL could be shuttered.

"The easiest way to kill MySQL would be to not sell licenses any more or make their prices "really high". Another scenario is that the development resources are drastically reduced in some important areas. Then people would stop believing in the future of MySQL, which slowly will kill the product... It's safe to assume that both Sun and Oracle understand this."

Now, Widenius says MySQL -- hardly an underdog in the space -- has grown and stabilized to the point that it "hurts Oracle every day... Oracle [has] to lower prices all the time to compete with MySQL when companies start new projects. Some companies even migrate existing projects from Oracle to MySQL to save money."

Although Oracle has made several statements about the future of MySQL, here's what Widenius says the company has not guaranteed:

• that all of MySQL and its parts, modules and tools will remain under an open source license
• that MySQL license and support prices will remain the same
• that new versions and submitted patches will be released consistently and in a timely manner
• that dual licensing will continue and that affordable commercial licenses will be available
• that MySQL will be developed as an open source project
• that Oracle will work with the existing MySQL user community
• that discrimination will not occur when MySQL patches compete with Oracle products
• that MySQL will continue to be developed in ways that make it even more competitive with Oracle's main offering

In other words, by omitting certain language, Oracle has left itself more than enough ammunition to kill MySQL, if not execution-style then certainly over a long, slow, painful process of throttling innovation and freedom (as in beer and as in speech). Widenius points to Oracle's handling of the InnoDB acquisition in 2005 as a possible sign of things to come. "In the end," he writes, "Sun had to fork InnoDB, just to be able to improve performance."

So, without a list of users, Widenius is issuing a call to the entire open source community to help save MySQL from Oracle by emailing the EC and stating that either Oracle is not a fit steward for MySQL or that Oracle must make certain guarantees to ensure its open-source competitor's success. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is a known supporter of open-source technology; if user emails reach her before January 19 and make a significant impression, her office could shut the deal down.

As we've reported in the past, MySQL usage is expected to drop if the acquisition is complete. It seems that Oracle is putting a bad taste in the mouth of more than a few open-source geeks.

What's your opinion? Do you think Oracle should be allowed to take MySQL and do with it as they please? Do you think Oracle should have to make certain guarantees to ensure the longevity and success of MySQL? Or do you think MySQL should simply go to a good home, a.k.a. a nonprofit foundation, and remain a standalone competitor to Oracle's offering?

Vote below, and let us know your full thoughts in the comments.

The most extraordinary venting against SaaS came from the CEO of Lawson who, in an interview with ZDNet, predicted that "SaaS would collapse within 2 years". Larry Ellison of Oracle also weighed in during a recent investor conference call, as reported in Information Week, saying that Oracle did not see any money to be made in SaaS.

Just this week, we saw the news that SAP, a company that is investing in SaaS, telling investors that they saw an extraordinary order slowdown in the last 2 weeks due the global credit crisis.

This Is Not Just The "Pooh Corner Debates"

There are people who really believe that SaaS is a passing fad, just Service Bureau 3.0. These people are like Eeyore, the old grey donkey from Winnie The Poo. They think the Tigger types who are constantly running around excited about new technology are just, well ridiculous. There are others, like Piglet, who are just scared of anything new and big. The Wisdom Of Pooh, is just humbly asking asking questions.

But the guys running large enterprise IT vendors are smart. They are just putting on the Eeyore act to appeal to Eeyore clients to keep buying the old stuff as long as possible.

Debunking The SaaS = ASP and Service Bureau Myth

There are similarities between SaaS, ASP and Service Bureau. All are centralized architectures where the hardware is managed by somebody else. But that is where the similarity ends.

The notion that SaaS is taking us back to the days of dumb terminals is simply ridiculous. Have they not heard about AJAX and all the other rich client stuff that actually uses PC cycles to enhance the user experience?

The SaaS detractors are right that the ASP model was really just a financing vehicle. It was the same software, leased and run by somebody else. Yes, the economics of that are lousy.

SaaS is not ASP. SaaS is Net Native software, built to run on the Net. What worries the heck out of the big vendors is that this new code costs a tiny, tiny fraction of the cost that their mammoth old code bases cost. Seeing the traction that 37 Signals have with Basecamp and then seeing that they have only 12 employees is worrying for any old style competitor. You cannot even buy them, they have no VC forcing an exit and they are profitable.

The New New Thing Is Social SaaS

If SaaS was simply doing traditional enterprise IT but with a Net Native design at a fraction of the cost it would be big. But that is only the start. What really differentiates the SaaS winners is that they have a social media/networking twist at the core of their value proposition.

This Downturn Favors The Innovators

Some old style vendors are hoping that this is like the Dot Com crash, when big, solid and reliable beat small and innovative. They are wrong. This cycle is different. The client's risk goes away with SaaS. Try it for free for a while and then start small. The size of your company is not an issue.

This is The Innovation Economy and some people don't like that.