Two great posts were written over the weekend on MySQL, and I'd encourage you to read both. The first is from Pierre @ Milking the GNU who has some ideas for how MySQL/Sun can make money with a 21st-century software business. The second is from Glyn Moody, wondering if MySQL has forgotten some essential lessons.
Which brings me to a topic of my lunch-time discussion with Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal and co-founder of Acquia. More on that later, but we both wondered if maybe the pressure on MySQL to close off some extensions comes from trying to build a traditional database business, rather than using MySQL's huge community to innovate something completely new (or, at least, like Google/Amazon's EC2)?
Worth thinking about, but there are no easy answers.
Discuss: Two great posts on MySQL