[mythtv-users] Using Microsoft Access as a front-end to the MythTV database: HOWTO

[Richard Freeman]

David Segall wrote:
> Unlike Linux and other GPL software which uses the LGPL for required 
> libraries, MySQL uses the GPL. The JDBC and ODBC drivers are licensed 
> under the GPL so MySQL can claim that any program that incorporates 
> their libraries is a derived work and must therefore be open source. It 
> just happens that they have a license that they will sell you if you 
> cannot open source your program.

None of this is really an issue for Myth as it uses the GPL.  I'm sure
that if somebody came up with something like ODBC that could be applied
to linux software in general (and that wasn't tied to a single language
like JDBC) and it became a standard then you'd see more plug-and-play DB
solutions for linux.  Unfortunately, right now everybody uses
DB-specific libraries to access their databases and nobody wants to
rewrite their software to support somebody's favorite RDBMS.  As a
result the network effect pretty-much guarantees that MySQL will be with
us for a long time - nobody wants to run two DBs on their server if they
can help it...