MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, today announced its second straight quarter of financial profitability and another record year of enterprise sales wins and technical achievement.

With 4 million downloads since it launched in October, MySQL 5.0 is proving its relevance to open source developers and corporate enterprises alike. In 2006, we look forward to another great year of growth for the MySQL ecosystem of community users, industry partners and commercial customers."


In the other side, Sun is to offer users of its high-end Ultrasparc servers 12 months free subscription to Oracle's flagship database, in a bid to encourage users to upgrade to the latest Sun hardware.

Industry analysts are advising users already running Oracle on Sun servers to revaluate their options and use the offer as leverage in renegotiating licences.

David Bradshaw, principal analyst at Ovum, urged Oracle users on existing contracts to contact Oracle to see if they could also benefit from a reduction in annual maintenance costs.
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Along with the database licensing, users will be offered a new upgrade programme for Oracle Real Application Clusters on Sun hardware.


Those who give for free are making money and those who are making money give for free.