Oracle has promised to continue developing the community edition of MySQL. But you'd better like the architecture and customers that Oracle is targeting. On Sunday, the database giant's chief architect, Edward Screven, committed Oracle to making not only the enterprise edition of MySQL better but also the community version licensed under the GPL.

With all the noise about database and application software maker Oracle shelling out $5.6bn to acquire Sun Microsystems, the preview of the MySQL 5.4 relational database slipped through a lot of cracks when it was announced this week at the MySQL Conference & Expo in Santa Clara.

MySQL father Michael - Monty - Widenius and leading MySQL architect Brian Aker spoke separately at the annual MySQL Con in Santa Clara, California, where they pitched hard their MySQL forks.

The question "Oracle good, or Oracle bad, for MySQL?" was generally met with a smile first, then a measured, thoughtful response on the final day of the MySQL Conference in Santa Clara. The responses were interesting, to say the least, ranging from an absolute "No way" to equally absolute "Yes, it will be great for MySQL," and lots of answers somewhere in between.

Oracle presented a beta of what it called a "much faster" MySQL at the O'Reilly MySQL Conference and insists it will be continuing to invest in the open source database

Oracle has assured the European Union that the company will continue investing in Sun’s MySQL open source database. That move potentially clears the way for Oracle’s pending buyout of Sun. So what will Oracle actually do with MySQL? Early chatter involves a so-called Unbreakable MySQL plus a potential a specialization within Oracle's Partner Program. Here's the scoop.

The European Union is not the only one antsy about Oracle taking possession of the open source MySQL database should the commercial database giant's merger with Sun Microsystems get final approval. So are MySQL users.

Brian Aker parted ways with the mainstream MySQL release, and with Sun Microsystems, when Sun was acquired by Oracle. In time for next week's MySQL Conference & Expo, Aker discussed a number of topics with us, including Oracle's motivations for buying Sun and the rise of NoSQL.

Oracle's latest commitments designed to address the European Commission's concerns regarding its acquisition of Sun Microsystems and the MySQL database are paper thin, and even if they were confirmed they wouldn't safeguard MySQL's future...