Bad news about MySQL: Sun has announced that it will close-source portions of the code. Affected will be features pertaining to online backups in MySQL Enterprise, the commercial version of the database.

This decision, I believe, has much to do with the need to distinguish between the free Community version and the commercial Enterprise edition of MySQL. Sun will develop new features for MySQL Enterprise 6.0 without making them available in MySQL Community.

Before you hit the panic button, it’s important to reiterate the context of this announcement: it only affects the commercial MySQL Enterprise edition, and not the arguably more popular free version. It’s still bad news because it removes a feature important to mission-critical applications from general circulation. However, I hazard that it won’t take long before community-developed alternatives come into play and possibly supplant the commercial offering.