Gossip and news

Earlier this month, very quietly, Oracle acquired OSS database vendor Innobase, producers of InnoDB which, just so you know, ships as a component to MySQL. Interesting, ain't it?

This announcement from Oracle indicates that Oracle expects to renegotiate the contract between Innobase and MySQL, which comes up for renewal next year. Let's hope so. Gossip says Oracle isn't the only one shopping for open source databases. Rumors say Sun is also shopping around and could acquire PostgreSQL. Hmmm...interesting, would they just acquire the assets for PostgreSQL or would they acquire Pervasive Software who offers Postgres as the commerically supported alternative to its open source offering, PostgreSQL. Hmmm....In other fun and exiciting news, a little company called Scientego has made a claim based on a couple of patents it owns, namely No. 6393426 and No. 5842213 which cover the "transfer of data in a neutral format". Hmmm...the lawsuits filed by Scientego and the patents discuss non-hierarchal data, so that leaves us stumped as to the nature of its claims since XML is most certainly hierarchal in nature. More to come on this one, we're sure, but likely just more poking fun at this little company playing barrater.