MySQL™: The World’s Most Popular Open Source Database 112 Can the Competition Produce Something Better? • By starting from scratch? • Hardly. It takes 10 years for any mission-critical software product to mature. • By opensourcing a closed-source product? • Hardly. It takes years (or an eternity) for closed-source software to become clean enough go gain open source acceptance. • By improving an existing open source product? • Perhaps. But note that MySQL is today several times more popular than the next runner-up. • By forking a new version based on MySQL? • Anybody is free to modify and distribute MySQL under GPL, but maintaining the code is extremely difficult for anyone but the core development team of MySQL AB. Also, only MySQL AB can sell commercial licences and use the MySQL name. • By giving away an existing product free of charge? • May happen, but that does not make the product open source or superior. Copyright 2003 MySQL AB