Last Friday was my last day at Oracle. Today is my first day at MariaDB.org!
Of course, this move is a big surprise for many people, but not for me, and it might not be for those following the MySQL ecosystem closely.
My decision to leave Oracle was made before the announcement of the new era of community engagement. And even though I truly wish MySQL success in this new endeavour, this new course of action has not changed my mind that it was time for me to leave.
Those who know me know that I have always been a staunch advocate of open source, and when I chose to join Oracle nearly 10 years ago, despite some reservations, I was convinced that Oracle was doing a great job with MySQL and was a competent steward.
And it has been for several years, culminating in the extraordinary release of MySQL 8. But then the focus dramatically changed, and the teams were affected even before the massive layoffs. MySQL lost great product managers like Morgan, Matt, Kenny and Airton… that was already a first sign.
During this period, interest in the Community Edition declined with each new release, and as a community manager, I had to address this situation and an increasingly hostile community toward MySQL, whose interest continued to decline.
I think Oracle’s new direction of embracing the community again is needed, but it might be too late. A lot of excellent engineers have already left (and some have joined MariaDB), and I personally don’t see how they will be able to change, or at least how they will be able to change fast enough. I hope I’m wrong.
Meanwhile, for MySQL users, another actor was already doing the right thing in the open-source world. A product where the development is open, a product where the roadmap and the discussions are public. And above all, a product that innovates and meets users’ needs.
It wasn’t hard to convince me that this is where I should belong.
I will now devote all my energy and skills to an open-source project that has been committed to open source from the outset and is eager to evolve to meet users’ expectations most.
There is an initiative to create a foundation to ‘save’ MySQL, but doesn’t such a foundation already exist? There is a viable alternative for MySQL users: MariaDB. It offers more features, is ready to innovate further, and welcomes your contributions. Let’s work together!