Sybase releases free database for Linux

TalkBack 5 of 5:

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Is he for real?

<--Begin quote; http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5359441.html -->
"Sybase releases free database for Linux"

David Jacobson, a marketing director at Sybase, said the database was produced for customers who want to run a test pilot of a commercial database on a Linux box.

"Many of our customers use Unix machines and want to move to Linux," Jacobson said. "As they are constrained by budget, they are using free open-source databases to try Linux out. But we want to give them the opportunity to try ASE."

The free version, called ASE Express Edition for Linux, offers core ASE 12.5.2 functionality but will work only on a single-processor machine, storing a maximum of 5GB of data and using a maximum of 2GB of RAM.
<--end quote-->

Apparently, according to Mr. Jacobson, this is in fact a 'opportunity to try' and then later buy. It is a test pilot of an 'Express' database being made available for developers to evaluate or as a run-time backend to some other small application, not a free enterprise database being made available to Linux users for production. Production version will cost you.

Maybe Mr. Jacobson wasn't clear enough but the referenced ZDNet article above was, I thought, until Mr. J. continued to say:

<--Begin quote-->
"Customers are looking for a way of getting a free database. They are not that interested in being able to view source code," he said.

Jacobson said there are issues surrounding open-source databases that will draw customers toward Sybase's free database.

"ASE offers various enterprise features such as high availability, security and replication. There are also licensing issues--if businesses want to resell open-source software with a GPL license, then they have to pay fees. With ASE, the license is free."
<--End quote-->

This leads me to think that Mr. J. is suggesting that any customer who wants a free database is not developing their own software to resell and so are not interested in source code but if they used an OSS that allows them to veiw and edit the source code then they cannot sell it so Sybase is better. Things that make you go, "hmmm."

He also seems to suggest that the open source alternatives are not good enough for the Enterprize because they lack high availability, security and replication while all his lack is speed, useability and scaleability (1 CPU, 2GB RAM, 5GB storage) and so is better. "Hmmmm."

He also has a slightly twisted understanding of the GPL and the two licenses under which MySQL can be acquired as well as a misunderstanding about re-distributing a GPL'ed DBMS and selling a DB application which uses a GPL'ed DBMS.

Sybase is giving people a try before you buy opportunity and selling the idea as a free Enterprise system by FUDing OSS.

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5358056.html


P.S., how well do MySQL and PostgreSQL handle high availability, security and replication? Just curious.

Posted by: The King's Servant   Posted on: 09/09/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Virtualization: Architectural Considerations And Other Evaluation Criteria VMware Of the many approaches to x86 systems virtualization available in the ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now