If we're going to call the basic, free distro a useful business product, fine. But by that measure, let's call SQL Server Express free too. It has no admin tools, and only supports limited users. The main difference being is that SQL Server Express IS transactional and ACID compliant, and it does have integral backup and restore that runs online without interrupting your business by having to take the database offline like mySQL does, and it ships free with the product. mySQL does not, unless you count doing a text dump to be a "backup". We need to debunk the idea that mySQL is free, and I sincerely hope Oracle DO turn it into a paid-for, but much better product which they make money off and which can do what it should be able to do.

Let's face it, if you're using it commercially, mySQL truly starts to look very expensive. mySQL *sounds* like openSource, but it's a big con, probably has been since Sun bought it (Oh, and remind me, where did the $CASH$ go Mrt Widenius? Did we hear you whine like a schoolgril back then?)

Let's examine the case for it being a commercial product.

You want to monitor it? You pay for the Enterprise version.

You want decent professionals who know what they're doing? You pay big money for them because there's so little decent expertise out there, and to get certified, you *have* to take an expensive Sun certification course.

You want to scale it because it won't support more than 40 users? You need to buy more (expensive) server hardware and hosting costs.

You want a transactional database that complies with ACID properties that proper business need? You need innoDB. Which is free, except you want to back it up whilst it's online and you have to shell out $500 per year to Oracle PER INSTANCE for a backup product.

Still sound cheap? Emperor's New Clothes=mySQL.

And before anyone asks, this is not rhetoric, I use it in a serious production environment. Don't get me wrong, mySQL can do some pretty clever things. But I've seen two serious database corruptions in two months, whereas with SQL Server and Oracle, I've seen none in fourteen years. It's not mature enough for anything serious/critical (and Google and Facebook do not qualify as that, whatever you may think), and it's NOT FREE if you use it for anything non-trivial. So let's not moan too much, it's a commerical product Michael, which some openSource dudes did very well out of selling. Get on with your life and stop being so emotional about something you no longer have a right to control.