• silicon.com
• Technology
• Software

By Tim Ferguson, 19 November 2009 15:41

COMMENT

In an exclusive interview, former MySQL boss and silicon.com Agenda Setter, Marten Mickos talks to Tim Ferguson about the state of open source, Oracle's plans to buy Sun Microsystems and the value of working with people who are smarter than you.

Marten Mickos is probably best known for his time as chief executive of open source database company MySQL, a position he held from 2001 until the beginning of 2009.

During his time there, he guided the company to a position where it was challenging the database giants and was snapped up by Sun Microsystems in early 2008 for a cool $1bn.

Of his success with MySQL, Mickos is modest, suggesting he was in the right place at the right time. "I was intrigued by open source when I joined MySQL and I did somehow sense that this could be a very big thing. There was some good serendipity involved and just a hunch feeling that this could be a big thing," he told silicon.com.

Fast forward to the present and open source is indeed on the rise - most notably in the mobile industry, for example, where handset makers are falling over themselves to embrace new open source OSes such as Google's Android and Maemo, while the more established Symbian OS continues to shift millions of units every quarter.

"Some years ago there was practically no open source in the mobile and telecoms space, today there is. So that's a major new land win for open source," Mickos said.

The pull of open source is such that is has attracted the eye of software monolith and serial acquirer Oracle: the company announced its intention to buy Sun, which now owns MySQL, for $4.7bn earlier this year - a move that would "benefit [Oracle] enormously", according to Mickos.

The proposed acquisition has not been looked on favourably by the regulators, however, with the EC registering concerns over its possible negative effect on competition.

The Commission has yet to give its official approval to the acquisition - a delay that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said is costing Sun $100m every month it waits for a decision on the deal.

And while he warned that "time is of the essence" for success with such high tech deals, the former MySQL boss believes the proposed acquisition could be a boon to the open source movement.

"Oracle's readiness to pay billions of dollars for open source assets should be seen as a positive thing for open source. It's not a threat - it's one of the biggest open source coups ever. The fact that Oracle sees it as a strategic acquisition - a company that is the biggest producer of open source software in the world - that's a very significant and very positive change."

Oracle could well not be the only software behemoth looking to get closer to open source: Mickos predicts that as it increasingly comes up against competition from Google, Microsoft could start to embrace its old rival.

"I have this conviction that over time Microsoft will turn around and become one of the biggest friends of open source. I can't really explain why I believe so but I think it somehow is inevitable," he said.

"You may think that they are somehow completely contrary to open source but the only thing differing between Microsoft and open source is that Microsoft so far has believed in closing the source but other than they are very developer friendly, they have good tools, they like to build communities, they have many actions that are very similar to the open source world," Mickos added.

Once Microsoft overcomes its approach to licensing and software patents, open source could become an integral part of its strategy with it developing strong ties with open source communities, he believes: "It will take time and I could be wrong but I somehow feel that that's what will be happening."

While he left MySQL some six months ago, Mickos hasn't stepped away from the world of technology.

These days he's entrepreneur in residence with VC firm Benchmark Capital - a role that sees him "identify, assess and close investment deals" involving technology, something he hopes will give him inspiration for his next operational role.

His involvement with open source continues too: he's a board member at Mozilla Messaging as well as cloud computing management company and open source supporter RightScale.

"The key thing is to have your ears and eyes open, meaning being open to input and new influences because everybody needs to renew themselves.

"So this is a way for me to renew my understanding of the industry as last time I took a new job was eight years ago - that's a long time - and at that time open source was the biggest thing and today it's different, it's cloud computing and it's other things," he added.

But for all his open source history and present involvement, Mickos is also realistic about the technology.

"Let's remember open source doesn't solve every problem on the planet. There are areas for which there are no useful open source products yet. So it's not like open source phenomenon has reached its apex yet, there's more to develop and more territory to conquer. But with open source, there's no reason not to use it."