Computer: January 2008 Archives

I was stunned to read that Sun bought MySQL AB for One Billion dollars.

Sun is one of my favorite technology companies. If faced with having to choose a commercial UNIX system I would choose Sun hands down. I love the tool set especially some of their latest hits like DTrace, Open Office and their T2 processors.

MySQL is hands down my favorite database to develop code with. It's fast, it's easy and it scales. I've worked with the software on both a free and commercial basis and I have been very happy with the product and the support offered by the company.

Why was the marriage so shocking? I simply can't believe the price tag. How will Sun recoup a billion dollars from this investment. It will take a lot of consulting and support contracts to return that much money to it's stock holders. I admit I'm happier than if a competitor had scooped them up and buried the product deep underground.

Who benefits most? I'm willing to bet Tim O'Reilly makes more money from this acquisition than Sun ever will. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

I'm half way through this O'Reilly book and it is inspiring. I can tell you from experience that looking at well designed code is a real pleasure. This book is a collection of essays about computer code. Most of the essays do a great job at taking a particular piece of code and explaining something about that code that makes it stand out as beautiful for one reason or another. If you care about the craft of creating computer programs you will probably enjoy this book. This book had me hooked immediately when it's first essay was by none other than Brian Kernighan.