What To Value

I’m having a lot of difficulty understanding the debate surrounding MySQL’s decision to make their enterprise binaries and source less available than before. I was hoping that a few days into it I would get a better sense of the debate and why I was seeing the positions that are popping up.

I realized, though, that the context of the discussion is deeply entrenched within the traditional software business model. Furthermore, it is complicated by MySQL’s IPO plans.

I’ve seen people argue that MySQL is not as open, that MySQL is technically adhering to the GPL, that this is all about paying customers and on and on and on. I even got an email from someone today that claimed that MySQL is doing this because of revenue problems, which is probably the most nonsensical argument I’ve heard thus far.

Almost all of this comes from a mindset that MySQL is in the traditional database software business, requiring traditional proprietary software secrets and closed-source products in order to survive. I’ve long argued that open-source companies are not in the software business, they are in the support business. The problem is that no one knows how to value a support company; their experiences are all within the traditional, closed-source software businesses.

Hence, potential MySQL investors may ask how the IP is protected, and therefore, how their investments are protected, if it’s all open and just anyone can get it. Then we see MySQL make a change that allows them to adhere to the GPL and satisfy potentially nervous investors.

I believe the source-code has no value to the database consumer. The value is in MySQL’s ability to efficiently deliver a reliable product to its customer base and to service and support that customer base.

Perhaps we’re in a transitory state where we need to satisfy an investment population that is slow to move forward to new business models. Perhaps we’re unable to articulate, or maybe even understand, the new business models that we’re creating. Perhaps we’re just stuck in the group-think about how software companies are supposed to work.

At the end of the day I don’t see anything wrong with MySQL making it less efficient to get their binaries and source, then again I don’t understand why they would want to do that either. I don’t think that anyone can support MySQL, the product, as efficiently as MySQL, the company, and that’s the value they provide to their market and their investors. That’s the value all open-source companies should be providing for their products.