{ChrisRenner.com}

Ran across this article on Zend.com about Drizzle, a lightweight fork of MySQL intended for "cloud" applications.  As we see more fork projects and groups take MySQL in their own directions, I continue to wonder what Oracle's ultimate intentions are for the open source db now that it owns MySQL as part of its acquisision of Sun Microsystems.

Maybe tech and business industry types pointed out the painfully obvious fact that MySQL creates serious overlap with Oracle's existing relational db product lineup.  However, it has not been emphasised that the two products really cater to different markets.  Yes, there's some overlap, particularly in the low-cost rapid-application-development arena.  Are there low-cost small scale apps using Oracle? Yes, but I'm sure most are using the free "Express" version.  Are there huge enterprise scale apps using MySQL? Sure.  But, for the most part, I would wager that this overlap is negligible in comparison to the leverage that the gigantic MySQL installed base could give Oracle in terms of a gateway to new classes of potential customers for Oracle's other products and services.

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