Open source lock-in, Jan 17, 2004

With the release of MySQL 4.0, the licensing policy of the wildly popular open source database underwent a subtle change. The code libraries that client programs use to access the native MySQL API, formerly licensed under the LGPL (Lesser General Public License), were converted to the GPL. The LGPL was designed to exempt “nonfree” programs that link against open source libraries from the GPL’s strong requirement to release source code. The purpose of the LGPL, according to the Free Software Foundation, is “to encourage the widest possible use of a certain library, so that it becomes a de-facto standard.” And indeed, MySQL has become the database pillar of the so-called LAMP platform, whose acronym expands to Linux, Apache, MySQL, and the trio of Perl, Python, and PHP.

Linux and open source may be reaching a new era as the faithful congregate next week at the LinuxWorld conference in New York.

As the legal battles over Linux and Unix continue to play out, more vendors are offering users legal indemnity, and the 2.6 kernel will soon start finding its way into products.

CSK Auto, the largest auto parts chain in the Western U.S., with with 1,100 Checker, Schuck's, and Kragen auto parts stores in 19 states, is moving to a Linux-based point-of-sale (POS) system implemented by POS device and open systems software development specialist Ultimate Technology.

European firms are being urged to buy a licence for Linux to avoid legal action by SCO which claims the operating system unlawfully includes some of its computer code.

Before now SCO has been pursuing US companies to buy a licence for Linux but now it is extending the licensing program overseas.

SCO said it would probably launch legal action this year against high profile European firms that decline the chance to take out a licence.

SCO wants Linux to succeed. The more Linux succeeds, the more valuable it becomes. While some have derided McBride and Co. as a bunch of liars, I will point out that they have told the truth about at least one thing: they are not trying to harm Linux. Why should they? If SCO can prove the Linux kernel has unauthorized pieces of SCO's code, they believe they will have control of a technology that has the capability to take on and even beat Microsoft.

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