InfoWorld runs on LAMP
There's an interesting editorial in InfoWorld about SQL Server where Sean McCown, a noted SQL Server author and InfoWorld reviewer, says that only "tree huggers" would use an open source database. Maybe he should have checked with the IT staff at InfoWorld since they run MySQL and the LAMP stack extensively in InfoWorld's operations. In fact InfoWorld's former CTO Chad Dickerson, frequently wrote about their use of MySQL and other open source products. I've put a few quotes and links below. But maybe Chad is just a tree hugger.
Maybe Alcatel, Cardinal Health, the Census Bureau, CNet, Evite, Friendser, The Gap, Google, Lufthansa, Macy's, Nasa, Nokia, Orbitz, Sabre, Sony, Suzuki, Tellme Networks, TicketMaster and eight million other MySQL users are all tree huggers. Heck, we're being over-run by tree huggers! Ok, Craigslist is a customer too, and they probably are tree huggers. (And they run a very scalable, profitable tree-hugging business.)
"In my day-to-day IT reality, open source technologies play a central role: infoworld.com runs Linux/Apache, I use MySQL inside and outside of work for fun, and I keep up with less-hyped but mature technologies such as FreeBSD and PostgresSQL. I've been a Linux user since 1994."
"At InfoWorld, we use a variety of software packages to run key parts of our business, from commercial products such as Lotus Notes, Oracle, Quark Publishing System, and Windows 2000 to open source software such as Linux, Apache, and MySQL. On the open source side of the house, I've been liberal in my praise."
"To a large degree, InfoWorld runs on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) architecture, which gives us great latitude in what Linux distribution we use."
"In areas where outsourcing doesn't make sense and IT needs to build custom functionality unavailable in commercial products, open source is an increasingly viable choice. Just this week I needed to quickly load a 10,000-record database for some basic SQL-based analysis, so I created a MySQL database on my OS X machine (Linux would have worked equally well) using phpMyAdmin, then loaded the data. Minutes later, I was using the query features of phpMyAdmin to do interactive business analysis of the data. The benefits don't end with small projects."
"I am running out of options for areas in my IT operation that legitimately shouldn’t be open source. Operating system? Linux works like a champ. Web server? If you’re not running Apache at this point, what are you doing? Database layer? MySQL scales fine for most Web-based apps, and basic master/slave software clustering for it is free, which can save roughly six figures over a commercial solution if you’re running more than a couple of database servers."
InfoWorld's reviews are generally good and McCown rightly points out some of the features that SQL Server has that are not found in MySQL. Our design philosophy is that when it comes to features, more is not always better. Often products get sluggish and bloated suffer from featuritis. Our goal at MySQL is to deliver on performance, reliability and ease of use; we have purposefully decided not to focus on having the longest list of features.
Nonetheless, for McCown to dismiss open source users as tree huggers misses the point entirely. Open source is a growing phenomena for many companies who focus on getting the job done cost-effctively, InfoWorld included.
- InfoWorld: SQL Server 2005 leaves open source databases in the dust
- InfoWorld: SQL Server 2005 review
- InfoWorld: MySQL 5.0 makes its debut
I do hope all our customers and users are tree-huggers, that means more hope for the world's ecology as well as for our IT infrastructure.
Posted by: Arjen Lentz | January 19, 2006 at 07:59 PM