Group aims to keep MySQL healthy

From CNET News.com: One of original authors of MySQL, Michael 'Monty' Widenius, has founded the Open Database Alliance, a consortium that aims to become the industry hub for the open source database.

The move was announced Wednesday. The two founding parties of the vendor-neutral consortium are Widenius' engineering company, Monty Program, and the MySQL services and support company Percona.

According to a statement from the Open Database Alliance (ODA), the consortium will act as a hub for MySQL and its derivative code, binaries, training, and support. Specifically, the ODA will work on the software, support and service for Widenius' branch of MySQL, MariaDB.

MariaDB is an enterprise-grade, community-developed branch of MySQL. Its name is a function of the fact that Sun owns the trademark for the term "MySQL" and the fact that the source uses the Maria storage engine, in turn named after Widenius' daughter.

Sun, which oversees MySQL, is currently being acquired by Oracle. Oracle has its own proprietary database, which is a major competitor to MySQL. The ODA said in its statement that its formation was in part due to "uncertainty" facing the community.

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