NuSphere Corporation announced today (July 16)
the launch of MySQL.org, a Web site designed to provide MySQL
developers and the open source community with an independent forum
for sharing code and ideas surrounding the use of this leading open
source database. MySQL.org will serve as an incubator of innovation
for open source developers who are not prepared to pay licensing
fees or buy commercial products. MySQL is a leading open source
database with users such as Yahoo!, Dow Jones and NASA.

Anyone visiting MySQL.org will be able to freely re-distribute the
source code and binaries offered under the General Public License
(GPL). Since there will be no commercial considerations to restrict
technical developments, MySQL.org will contain the best and most
current ideas and contributions. NuSphere will fulfill its
commitment, announced in January 2001 [see release at
http://www.nusphere.com/releases/013001.htm], to make Gemini
available under GPL at MySQL.org. Gemini is the table type that
gives the MySQL database transactional, row-level locking
capabilities.

Motivating factors behind the decision to launch MySQL.org

MySQL AB, a Swedish company, develops and markets the MySQL
database server through MySQL.com. Recently, MySQL AB has taken
venture funding, hired a new CEO and become more commercially
focused.

Red Hat’s move into the open source database market, aligned with
PostgreSQL, further underscores the need for a unifying forum for
the MySQL community.

“MySQL.org is designed to more clearly separate church and state
for the MySQL community. Developers will not encounter licensing
demands or sales calls with MySQL.org, as they may with the
MySQL.com Web site,” said Britt Johnston, chief technology officer,
NuSphere. “Now that Red Hat is promoting PostgreSQL, NuSphere felt
it was even more important that MySQL have a strong and vibrant
open source community.”

MySQL.org will be a community-driven site with NuSphere’s support,
much the same way IBM backs the Apache Software Foundation’s
Apache.org site. NuSphere is launching the Web site to guarantee
that MySQL developers and supporters continue to get the best open
source information and code offered under the GPL. The GPL permits
users to publish their modified versions as long as source code is
made available. A crucial aspect of open source software is that
users are free to cooperate and help each other by sharing
improvements with other users. The decision to establish MySQL.org
was made with the understanding that core changes and contributions
will not be owned by a single party for commercial benefit.

“MySQL is critical to our clients in transportation and
distribution who are required to respond to the information needs
of their customers,” said Kevin Krieger, president of Krieger
Consulting Group. “MySQL allows them to scale in a competitive
market place without prohibitive licensing requirements. To be a
successful value-added reseller, I need to show my customers that
their business systems are scalable and supported. Directing
customers to a Web site like MySQL.org provides an unbiased
validation that they have made the best purchase. I will be a
frequent visitor on the site as its existence is going to create an
even better MySQL than available today.”

NuSphere market research estimates that there are between one to
three million MySQL servers in use. The MySQL database is being
downloaded at a rate of more than one million downloads per year.
Interest in MySQL.org is strong, as evidenced by the almost 500
users who registered in the first 24 hours. MySQL.org is open to
contributions from other organizations. Organizations and
individuals interested in linking, or contributing code, to
MySQL.org should e-mail support@mysql.org.

“As the open source software community continues to grow, there
will need to be increasing emphasis on creative ways to engender
collaboration and facilitate the development of technology
partnerships and alliances,” said Vito Mabrucco, director, software
partnering & alliances at IDC. “MySQL.org provides a structured
approach to help the open source community collaborate to continue
the development of MySQL as an open source database.”

About MySQL.org

MySQL.org is being created as a non-profit organization dedicated
to the development and distribution of the open source database
MySQL. The organization will comprise the open source database
community, developers, individuals and institutions who believe in
the continued free exchange of ideas and improvement for open
source development.

About NuSphere Corporation

NuSphere delivers the first Internet Application Platform (IAP)
based on open source components, providing an integrated foundation
that allows companies to deploy reliable, cost-effective,
enterprise-class applications across Windows, UNIX and Linux
environments.

NuSphere Advantage is an integrated software suite that pairs the
reliability and cost-effectiveness of Apache, MySQL, Perl and PHP
with new technology for building business-critical Web
applications. Based in Bedford, Mass., the company?s commercial
software services include technical support, consulting and
training. For more information, visit www.nusphere.com or call
+1-781-280-4600.

NuSphere is a trademark of NuSphere Corporation in the U.S. and other countries; and
NuSphere is a registered trademark in Australia and Norway. MySQL AB has applied for
trademark registration of MySQL.

Infoworld: “In an announcement on its Symantec Antivirus Research Center (SARC) Web site, Symantec
said that the W32.Leave.B.Worm is a variant of the W32-Leave.worm identified several
weeks ago by the FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center.

What’s new, said Patrick Martin, SARC’s development manager, is that this is apparently the
first time that a virus or worm has been distributed using a faked Microsoft security bulletin.
“It’s a sneaky way to get on your system,” Martin said. “We’ve just never seen them use the
tactic of a security bulletin as a guise.”

ZDNET: “We’re from the government and we want you to help us.

That was the message from a seven-member “Meet the Fed” panel, where government officials
answered the questions of a roomful of hackers at the Def Con conference here Saturday.”

Newsbytes.com: “Procedural mistakes, and not some new security bug, were likely the cause of the defacement last week of
the Web site of the SANS Institute, according to sources close to the organization.

The computer security research and education group restored its Web site Sunday evening, after its home
page was replaced Friday by an attacker using the name “Fluffi Bunni.”

Wired: “A bunch of hackers buy Packet Storm, a popular security site that Securify dumped for $1 — after (correctly) realizing it wasn’t going to make any money. They’re aggressively open-sourcing the thing, encouraging mirrors and public participation.”

LinuxPlanet: “A useful random bit of advice for anyone interested in their own cross-country move I can offer is that if your
mail-gathering device suddenly proves unable to gather mail, it’s an awfully good idea to unsubscribe to the Linux kernel
mailing list… especially if you have a two week wait until you can shed your dialup connection in favor of DSL. I didn’t do
this and suffered horribly on arrival in Portland.”

The Register: “The latest WinXP RC1 leak makes the security of Microsoft’s preview program
download look feeble enough, but it turns out there’s more – somebody seems to
have left a working product key not very deeply buried in the iso. Naturally that
product key will cease to work for Product Activation just as soon as Microsoft
realises what happened (which is around now), but it does mean that anybody who
got to the unauthorised download link has the capability to install the software.”

NewScientist: “Anti-piracy compact discs that cannot be copied by a computer have gone on
sale in California. The first CD title has already sold 100,000 copies, but it is
causing concern among audio experts because they fear that the music may be
audibly distorted.”

CNET: “The Scotts Valley, Calif.-based company said Tuesday it will offer Web-based software and
services for rent by September that will allow software programmers to collaborate on their
projects and communicate via the Internet.

The software development toolmaker joins Oracle, Merant, Mercury Interactive and others in
becoming an application service provider (ASP), or a company that rents out software over the
Web. The companies hope to boost sagging sales in the development tool market by offering their
software and services online. That way, they say, their customers can save time and money
because they do not have to install and manage the software themselves.”

The Register: “Catalogue reseller Action Computers has decided that people thinking about
purchasing Windows 98 from it would do well to consider Linux instead.

On a page on its site describing Windows 98, Action lists Liberty Linux for Dummies
Quick Reference manual and an Idiot’s Guide to Linux by Que as related items a
Windows 98 shopper might want to buy. These guides, unlike Windows 98 itself, are
only available from Action’s back order catalogue, so buyers would have to wait
over a week after getting Microsoft’s operating system before getting clued up on
open source.”