Re: Licensing

MySQL is a commercial company that wants to sell licenses. Their open source offering licensed under something called the GPL (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php), which is in some ways quite complex. You or your client should consult an attorney to see whether your intended use meets its terms. Based on your response from the MySQL account rep, it sounds like your app would not be in compliance.

PostgreSQL, on the other hand, is licensed under something called the BSD (http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php). It is totally different, and is a much more business friendly license. It essentially allows you to do whatever you want. It is royalty free and does not have any important restrictions on redistribution.

If PostgreSQL meets your technical needs, you should give it a try. Licensing will not be a problem.

I'm a bit interested in what you are trying to do - large data volumes and laptops don't often go together.

-----Original Message-----
From: James Tillman [mailto:JamesTillman(at)sevatechnologies(dot)com]
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2005 3:04 PM
To: pgsql-advocacy(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: [pgsql-advocacy] Licensing

Please redirect me if this is the wrong list to post to. I have a client
who needs a database to install on laptops for use with a Java app (internal
use only, this is a governmental agency). They originally thought MySQL
might work, but the MySQL sales rep we spoke to says that you can't install
MySQL server on laptops for use with an application without buying licenses
(!) They claim you can only run it on a server using the open source
license.

I was surprised to hear this, but I wonder if PostgresQL has the same
restrictions.

The app will not be sold, or redistributed outside the organization. The
app will be installed on the laptops along with the local server. Looking
for a free and open source solution here that can handle many, many records.
(HypersonicSQL was considered, but dropped due to large volume performance
considerations).

Anyone have any guidance on this?

jpt

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James Tillman
President
Seva Technologies, LLC
850.201.9715
jamestillman(at)sevatechnologies(dot)com
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