For more than nine years, I worked for MySQL AB and its successors, Sun Microsystems and Oracle. I handed in my resignation late June, two days before Sun’s German legal entity ceased to exist. Germany isn’t a country where you quit HP one day and join Oracle the next, so I had a long summer with plenty of so-called Garden Leave. Last Thursday was my last day, and I’m now outside MySQL AB, outside Sun Microsystems, outside Oracle.

Like all the many former colleagues who resigned before me, I did so with mixed feelings. Leaving the colleagues, finding freedom, I think you follow. The topmost feeling I have, the one I want to highlight right now, is gratitude. I’m very grateful for what MySQL AB has meant for my career, my personal development, my life experiences, my social life. Let me mention a small subset of the people that made my life at MySQL AB, and later Sun Microsystems, a truly memorable …

My fellow countryman and Sun colleague Henrik Ingo is collecting “a Monument to Monty” on his blog:

I will be meeting Monty on this Friday (March 20th), in fact we will celebrate the start of his new company Monty Program Ab. (For the avoidance of doubt: No, I’m not joining it, I just happen to live nearby.)

I decided Monty leaving “MySQL Ab” at least deserves to be considered some kind of a milestone. After all, MySQL is the database that propelled the web to what it is today. When you think back 10+ years, there must be many memorable moments you have experienced with MySQL.

This is what I want to do: This page will be dedicated to Monty - consider it a monument to the father of MySQL. Please use the comment form below and write something nice, personal and MySQL related. How did you first start using MySQL? Or what was your …

Lenz Grimmer and Duleepa Wijayawardhana have made a series of interviews with the everyday heroes of MySQL. Some are oldtimers, others are new. Some previously worked for MySQL AB, others joined our team through Sun. But all are part of the fabric of today’s MySQL.

Lenz and Dups asked a number of interesting questions from these guys:

• Lars Heill, Release Engineering Manager
• Masood Mortazavi, MySQL …

Here is my personal recipe for celebrating MySQL 5.1 GA (called “Five shot one“):

Ingredients:

• Kalashnikov vodka from Izhevsk, Udmurtia (

At the end of the Orlando meeting in January this year when the Sun acquisition was announced, I remember sitting next to MySQL’s co-founder David Axmark in the bus going to some evening event. “What do you want to do now, with so many opportunities opening up?” was my question to him, partly as his friend, partly as his colleague and partly as his line manager. David seemed very confident in the future of MySQL within Sun, but less sure about his own future role.

With that as a background, and knowing David since well over 20 years, I was not all that surprised to read his resignation letter, and in particular his reasoning for resigning:

I have thought about my role at Sun and decided that I am better off in smaller organisations. I HATE all the rules that I need to follow, and I also HATE breaking them. It would be far better for me to “retire” from employment and work with MySQL and Sun on a less formal …