Sun's acquisition of MySQL AB earlier this year carried with it the prospects that all such acquisitions of successful, smaller, open-source companies do, both positive and negative. The up side potential is that the influx of cash, capability, and publicity can allow the OSS company to successfully expand the capabilities and market for its product. The down side is that the assimilation may negatively effect the subtle chemistry and team structure that is the essential magic behind so many successful open source projects.

The rumors are swirling today that Michael Widenius, chief architect of the original MySQL database and company co-founder, will be leaving the company. Although given the nature of the project this doesn't necessarily mean his withdrawal from participation in it, it may indicate some fragmentation within the project, and that may be the result of an attempt by Sun to push the preferred platform for the database software from Linux to Solaris, as some suggested may have been the original motive behind the billion-dollar acquisition.

Of course, the beauty of open-source is that such disruption doesn't necessarily have any effect on the code base you may be using, but it does have the potential to slow down or degrade future progress. Too early to say if this is actually happening, or if the motives are as I have speculated, but if your enterprise is a significant MySQL adopter (and many are, even if they don't necessarily know it) it's a situation you should be keeping an eye on.