I have created a GitHub fork of MaxScale which does not include the 2.0 branch.  The repository is called GPLScale.

There is a big potential problem with this.  Take for example the file server/core/utils.c, which now has a new license:
https://github.com/mariadb-corporation/MaxScale/blob/2.0/server/core/utils.c

This file WAS covered under GPL:
  https://github.com/mariadb-corporation/MaxScale/blob/cb3213af6382c380df9fc47347764f087ae7ecb4/server/core/utils.c

When there is a bugfix in 2.0 for server code that existed in 1.0, can that code be backported directly into GPLscale?

a) util.c in 2.0 is clearly …

I have created a GitHub fork of MaxScale which does not include the 2.0 branch.  The repository is called GPLScale.

There is a big potential problem with this.  Take for example the file server/core/utils.c, which now has a new license:
https://github.com/mariadb-corporation/MaxScale/blob/2.0/server/core/utils.c

This file WAS covered under GPL:
  https://github.com/mariadb-corporation/MaxScale/blob/cb3213af6382c380df9fc47347764f087ae7ecb4/server/core/utils.c

When there is a bugfix in 2.0 for server code that existed in 1.0, can that code be backported directly into GPLscale?

a) util.c in 2.0 is clearly …

It has recently been brought to our attention that the MySQL man pages have been relicensed. The change was made rather silently going from MySQL 5.5.30 to MySQL 5.5.31. This affects all pages in the man/ directory of the source code.

You can tell the changes have come during this short timeframe (5.5.30->5.5.31). The old manual pages were released under the following license:

This documentation is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it only under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.

The new man pages (following 5.5.31 and greater – still valid for 5.5.32) are released under the following license:

This software and related documentation are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are protected by intellectual property laws. Except as expressly permitted in your license …

As part of the Libdrizzle Redux project I created an example tool which was bundled with it which will connect to a MySQL server as a slave and download the binary logs to local files.  This was developed as a quick example of what can be done with the new binlog API.

Two things quickly became apparent:

1. We shouldn't really be distributing applications in a library
2. I am going to be developing more useful tools around libdrizzle and they certainly shouldn't be in the same package
3. BSD is a fantastic license for a library, but I personally prefer GPLv2 for applications

With this in mind I have pulled the drizzle_binlogs utility from Libdrizzle trunk (and therefore won't be in the 5.1.3 release) and put it in its own repository.  It has been licensed appropriately (GPLv2) and I am already beginning to develop more tools to go with it.

The are no source …

I should first start this blog post with the acronym IANAL (I am not a lawyer).  Also the views in this post are mine and not my employer's (a lawyer did ask me to say that part).

Questions on the MariaDB JDBC Driver have already been raised so I wanted to do something similar for the MariaDB C Connector.  The JDBC's issues are mostly ethical whereas my C Connector questions are mostly legal.

But first a little history...  MySQL 3.23.58 was the last version to include an LGPL licensed connector for MySQL, the connector went GPL (and of course commercial) after this version.  Nowadays the connector is GPL with a FLOSS exception, that exception allows you to compile with certain other licensed software.  The main reason for this is PHP version 4 switched from a dual-licensed under the …

Finally there is an LGPL C client library for MariaDB, and thus also for MySQL. Monty Program and SkySQL have been working on this for some time. Admittedly there was already the BSD licensed Drizzle client library which was also able to talk to a MySQL/MariaDB server, however its API is different. The C client library for MariaDB has exactly the same API existing applications are used to, so you can just re-link and keep going! There is also a new LGPL Java client library for MariaDB.

In case you don’t quite realise: this is actually a major thing.

At MySQL AB, the client library was made GPL and this flowed through to Sun Microsystems and then Oracle Corp. This licensing choice for the client library was the basis of the …

Fall is being coy this year in the Northeast. We've been having on and off spells of very mild, almost summer-like weather over the last few weeks. That trend seems to be finally ending, alas, as there is possible snow forecasted for the weekend in New Hampshire. As the old joke goes, if you don't like the weather here, just wait five minutes.

The fall also brings hunting to the area. The annual moose season just concluded (you need to enter a special lottery to get a moose permit), but deer season is just about to open. My son and I won't be participating this year, but we recently purchased the appropriate tools of the trade, a shotgun to hunt in southern NH (where you can't hunt deer with a rifle) and a Mosin Nagant 91/30 for the rest of the state. The later is probably overkill, but my son saved up his pennies to buy it, being a student of both WWII and all things …

Microsoft: “more than half your Android devices are belong to us”. And more

# Microsoft claimed that more than half of the world’s ODM industry for Android and Chrome devices is now under license to Microsoft’s patent portfolio following its agreement with Compal Electronics.

# Hadapt expanded its board of directors and confirmed its $9.5m series A funding round.

# Appcelerator entered into an agreement …

Update

Since this article was written, HPCC has undergone a number of significant changes and updates. This addresses some of the critique voiced in this blog post, such as the license (updated from AGPL to Apache 2.0) and integration with other tools. For more information, refer to the comments placed by Flavio Villanustre and Azana Baksh.

The original article can be read unaltered below:

Yesterday I noticed this tweet by Andrei Savu: . This prompted me to read the related GigaOM article and then check out the HPCC Systems …

Apache OpenOffice.org proposal approved. SkySQL Tekes new funding. And more.

# The proposal for OpenOffice.org to become an Apache incubator project was unanimously approved.

# Rob Weir discussed how the relationship between OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice need not be a zero-sum game.

# Simon Phipps offered his thoughts on the potential positive and negative outcomes.

# Tekes, the main public funding agency for research, development, and innovation in Finland, …