• Community push intensifies to free MySQL from Oracle’s control amid stagnation fears An open letter signed by architects, DBAs, and engineers argues that closed development, missing AI‑era features, and declining commits demand a foundation-led model that includes Oracle but restores roadmap transparency. • Pressure is building on Oracle to loosen its grip on MySQL, with a group of database veterans, developers, and long-time contributors urging the company to transition the open source database to an independent foundation model. • The call, articulated in anopen letter, reflects mounting concern aboutMySQL’s development velocity, roadmap transparency, and role in an increasingly AI-driven data ecosystem. • The letter itself has received at least 248 signatures so far. • These signatories span database administrators, architects, and developers from MySQL fork providers such as Percona, MariaDB, and PlanetScale, as well as engineers and executives from companies including Zoho, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Pinterest, among others. • Open letter reflects growing unease over MySQL’s direction Chief among the signatories’ concerns is how Oracle has managed updates to MySQL’s codebase, which they argue has cost the database a significant loss in market share.

Article Summaries:

  • An open letter signed by 248 database architects, DBAs and engineers calls on Oracle to move MySQL to an independent, non‑profit foundation model. Signatories from Percona, MariaDB, PlanetScale, Zoho, DigitalOcean, Vultr and Pinterest argue that Oracle’s closed development, sparse commits and lack of AI‑era features are stalling MySQL’s evolution and eroding market share. They warn that enterprises are turning to PostgreSQL and fork‑based solutions, creating fragmentation and migration barriers. The letter proposes a foundation‑led governance structure that would keep Oracle as a stakeholder while restoring roadmap transparency and accelerating feature delivery.

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