Many believe that the InnoDB storage engine is at the heart of what makes the upcoming MySQL 5.0 database tick. The question now is, will Oracle twist that knife?
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"The recently announced new 5.0 features of MySQL are powered only by InnoDB, [which] now belongs to Oracle," Lubet told me. "As a result, MySQL is left only with its Classic edition that is file-based and doesn't support transactions, triggers or store procedures or any other advanced database features."
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This is what Oracle says in its release: "InnoDB's contractual relationship with MySQL comes up for renewal next year. Oracle fully expects to negotiate an extension of that relationship."
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This is what Lubet, former Oracle sales mistress, has to say about that: "I'm pretty sure, as an ex-Oracle employee, that the sentence in the release about 'We'll certainly be happy to renew the contract,' that it was written by Larry and that he was laughing out loud as he [dictated it]."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1869989,00.asp