I actually don’t remember exactly whether it was in 2006, 2007 or 2008 — but around that time the MySQL community had one of the greatest MySQL conferences put on by O’Reilly and MySQL. It was a good, stable, predictable time.

Shortly thereafter, the MySQL world saw acquisitions, forks, times of uncertainly, more acquisitions, more forks, rumors (“Oracle is going to kill MySQL and the whole Internet”) and just a lot of drama and politics.

And now, after all this time some 6 or 7 years later, it feels like a MySQL Renaissance. All of the major MySQL players are coming to the

Recent news that Microsoft and Barnes & Noble agreed to partner on the Nook e-reader line rather than keep fighting over intellectual property suggests the prospect of more settlement and fewer IP suits in the industry. However, the deal further obscures the blurry IP and patent landscape currently impacting both enterprise IT and consumer technology.

It is good to see settlement — something I’ve been calling for, while also warning against patent and IP aggression. However, this settlment comes from the one conflict in this ongoing war that was actually shedding some light on the matter, rather than further complicating it.

See the full article at TechNewsWorld.

When participating recently in a sprint held at Google to document four free software projects, I thought about what might have prompted Google to invest in this effort. Their willingness to provide a hotel, work space, and food for some thirty participants, along with staff support all week long, demonstrates their commitment to nurturing open source.

Google is one of several companies for which I'll coin the term "closed core." The code on which they build their business and make their money is secret. (And given the enormous infrastructure it takes to provide a search service, opening the source code wouldn't do much to stimulate competition, as I point out in a posting on O'Reilly's radar

Rapid7 secures new funding. Microsoft drops Dryad. And more.

# Rapid7 secured $50m in series C funding.

# Microsoft confirmed that it is ditching its Dryad project in favour of Apache Hadoop.

# Arun Murthy provided more details of Apache Hadop 0.23.

# The Google Plugin for Eclipse and GWT Designer projects are now fully open source.

# openSUSE released version 12.1.

# Amazon

OpenStack Foundation. New Pentaho CEO. And more.

# Rackspace announced its intention to form an independent OpenStack Foundation.

# HP has chosen Ubuntu as the lead host and guest operating system for its Public Cloud.

# Pentaho appointed Quentin Gallivan as its new CEO.

# Hortonworks continued the discussion about contributions to Apache Hadoop.

# Bob Bickel explained why CloudBees is not, itself, open source.

# Google

Google and Microsoft trade patent claims. Actuate announces Q2 results. And more.

# Google accused Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies of organising a hostile patent campaign against Android. That prompted Microsoft executives to claim that Microsoft invited Google to be involved in the CPTN purchase of Novell’s patents. However, Google explained that joining CPTN might have decreased its ability to defend itself against potential patent claims.

# Actuate announced its Q2

Open Cloud Initiative launches. HP joins OpenStack. Oracle releases Java 7. And more.

# The Open Cloud Initiative launched to drive open standards in cloud computing.

# HP announced its support for OpenStack.

# Oracle announced the availability of Java SE 7. The Apache Software Foundation warned of index corruption and crashes in Apache Lucene and Solr.

# Nebula

I wrote last year about the way Google’s Android mobile operating system was serving as a more open alternative to Apple’s iOS, but not so open that it didn’t leave opportunity for an even more open alternative.

Given that we continue to see software patent-based attacks on Android, as well as swirling FUD around coverage of the attacks and never ending suits and settlements and courtroom developments, it is clear it will be a long time before any of this legal business is ever close to settled, unless ended by settlements first, which is likely.

However, I’m more interested in the technology in the meantime. I also think it’s

Lesson for the week: If you really want to stir up an anthill, attack the conventional wisdom of code development best practices.

In other news ...

Another piece of Sun falls off the good ship Oracle

At this point, I could almost follow the practice of Gregg Easterbrook 's Tuesday Morning Quarterback and put this text on Autotext, but in the past week, Oracle cast off another piece of their acquired Sun technology. In this case, it was the integrated build platform "Hudson." Either fed up with the infighting that had led to the spin-off "

Novell sold to Attachmate. Barnes & Noble throws the book at Microsoft. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# Novell closed its acquisition by Attachmate and its patent sale to CPTN.

# Attachmate’s CEO discussed the company’s plans for SUSE Linux.

# Barnes & Noble

Spring came in like a lion here in the Northeast, with an April Fools' Day mini-blizzard, even though Lion itself isn't due to be released until summer at the earliest. While I waited for more hospitable weather to emerge, I've been huddled indoors working on a Kickstarter project with my son, and I will now shamelessly plug it: It's a high-powered replacement for the Wii sensor bar, designed to let you sit comfortably at the other end of a room while you use your Wii. You can read more about it here if you're interested.

Meanwhile, there were the usual interesting developments in the developer world.

Google: Now promoting gray as a  [Read more...]

This is your Developer Week in Review, I'm Casey Kasem. Our first letter comes from a software developer in New England who writes, "Dear Casey. My wife just got accepted into the Experimental Psych doctoral program at UNH, and I'd like you to play something appropriate for the occasion." Well, going out especially for you, here's "I'll be Proofreading Your Papers for the Next Five Years, 'Cause I'll Never Split (Our Infinitive)" (Seriously, congratulations Bonnie!)

And you thought that Justin Bieber tickets were hard to score ...

What's the matter, pal? You say you had your heart set on going to Google I/O, but the tickets sold out in

Red Hat grows revenue 20%+. Google withholding Honeycomb source code. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# Red Hat reported Q4 revenue up 25% to $245m, FY revenue up 22% to $909m

# Google is withholding the source code to Honeycomb for the foreseeable future.

# Rick Clark explained why he left Rackspace amid concerns that the company is exerting too much control over OpenStack.

# DataStax launched Brisk, a Hadoop/Hive

VMware grows 41%. Evidence of Java infringement disputed. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# VMware announced full year revenue growth of 41% to $2.9bn.

# Alleged evidence of infringing Java code in Android disputed.

# Oracle nominated SouJava, the Brazilian Java User Group, to a seat in the JCP Executive Committee.

# The Document Foundation launched LibreOffice 3.3.

# JasperSoft

Bid for Novell patents still on. Google drops H.264. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# The withdrawal of CPTN Holding proposal to acquire Novell’s patents is purely procedural, said Microsoft.

# Karsten Gerloff explained why the FSFE is concerned about the sale of Novell’s patents to CPTN.

# Google announced plans to support WebM and Theora in Chrome and Chromium, and drop H.264.

# Pentaho said it added 400 new

Topics for this podcast:

*Oracle, Java, the Apache Software Foundation and open source
*An update on some open source database and data management players
*CorraTech grows with support for open source application alternatives
*Red Hat-Makara acquisition analysis and impact
*Linux kernel report shows strong support, but what now for Novell?

iTunes or direct download (29:31, 5.1MB)

The future of Java. Google releases Gingerbread. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# The Register reported, and Oracle later confirmed, that Oracle’s proposed roadmap for Java 7 and 8 has been accepted.

# Stephen Colebourne provided more details on the results of the vote on Java 7 and Java 8.

# Google introduced the Nexus-S with Android Gingerbread.

# Nuxeo

Talend raises $34m, acquires Sopera. Red Hat releases RHEL 6. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# Talend raised $34m funding and acquired Sopera.

# Twilio raised $12m in series B funding.

# Red Hat released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

# Savio Rodrigues noted a change in emphasis from Red Hat to focus on value, rather than cost.

# Joyent officially became the new home for Node.js.

The Apache Software Foundation’s latest statement on the Java Community Process highlights continued dissatisfaction and dissent from Oracle’s stewardship and involvement in open source software.

This comes after some ups and downs for Oracle and its oversight of Java and other open source software that was previously under the auspices of Sun Microsystems. Oracle started off on a rough path when it sued Google over its implementation of Java in Android without preemptively or clearly stating that it was not attacking open source. At about the same time, it let OpenSolaris die a slow, somewhat confusing

Oracle increases MySQL pricing. Jono Bacon wants some respect. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# Oracle increased the prices for MySQL and rejigged its editions.

# A good overview of the resulting MySQL pricing hubbub from @tiensoon

# SkySQL named first customers in open letter to Oracle MySQL customers.

# Actuate reported over $5.1m in BIRT-related business for Q3, up 8% YoY.

# Actuate

Here's your weekly helping of developer info:

The sudden but inevitable Apple news

Several pieces of news on the Apple front this week. First up: the Gold Master seed (which either sounds like something you plant to get nice apples, or something out of a bad SF eugenics novel) for iOS 4.2 dropped, signaling the green light for iPad/iPhone/iPod developers to submit 4.2-ready applications to the App Store. Traditionally, the pre-release to developers is followed about a week later by the general release, and is identical.

Meanwhile, continuing to muddy the waters about what is and isn't allowed on the iPhone, Adobe gave a

The future of the JCP. A new Mozilla CEO. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# Mike Milinkovich explained why the Eclipse Foundation will support Oracle’s plans for Java 7, and outlined its concerns about the Java 8 JSR.

# Stephen Colebourne outlined the choices facing Java Community Process executive committee voters: pragmatism or bust, before later proposing a third option: a split in the Java Community Process between core and

Patents! Patents! Patents! Canonical’s perfect 10. And more.

Follow 451 CAOS Links live @caostheory on Twitter and Identi.ca, and daily at Paper.li/caostheory
“Tracking the open source news wires, so you don’t have to.”

# Google responded to Oracle’s claims that its Android OS infringes copyrights and patents related to Java.

# Matt Asay evaluated the various patent claims against Android and its related devices.

# Microsoft licensed smartphone patents from ACCESS Co and a subsidiary of Acacia Research.

# Glyn Moody assessed what Microsoft’s