Applicants should be located in either Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, or Finland (click on the links for a detailed job description).

We're a vastly distributed team, with writers in Australia, North America, and Europe. Our infrastructure is based on DocBook XML, and we're not just writing docs, but also maintain the whole processing and publication work chain.

Key competencies you should have include:

• 3 or more years previous experience in writing software documentation (please provide URLs of your writings I can look at!)
  
• Experience with writing documentation for system level software and operating systems
• Strong knowledge of the Linux operating system
• Strong knowledge of XML, DocBook XML, and XSL style sheets (and motivation to help maintain and expand our tools and infrastructure)
  
• Ability to administer own workstation and test environment
• Good experience with distributed working environments and versioning systems such as SVN

If this sounds like something for you, follow the links above and send in your application!

$ pkg install mysql-50

to obtain MySQL 5.0.91 (status Jan 18, 2012) or click on this link to launch the interactive installer.

$ pkg install mysql-51

to obtain MySQL 5.1.37 (status Jan. 18, 2012) or click on this link to launch the interactive installer.

• SAP Netweaver 7.0 
• SAP ERP 6.0 (including Enhancement Package 2 and 3) 
• SAP CRM 5.0 
• SAP CRM 2007(6.0) 
• SAP SCM 5.0 (liveCache Server 7.6 is not supported) 
• SAP SCM 5.1 (liveCache Server 7.7 is supported) 
• SAP SRM 5.0

using one of the two databases

• Oracle 11.2.0.3
• MaxDB 7.8.2.26 

with SAP Kernel 7.20_ext are supported on Solaris 11. The details are documented in the SAP note 1643799 (access for SAP customers only).

The news was both welcomed and derided. Rather than re-hashing previous arguments about open core licensing, what interests me more about the move is how it illustrates the different strategies adopted by Sun and Oracle for driving revenue from MySQL, and how a single project can be used to describe most of the major strategies from generating revenue from open source software.

Like most open source-related software vendors, MySQL started out life offering support, training and consulting around the open source database. The company also saw success in offering a closed source variant of the database for embedding in closed source systems, and it was this dual licensing strategy that drove much of the company’s early revenue. That began to change with the arrival of MySQL Enterprise (initially ‘MySQL Network’ – a subscription offering that delivered monitoring and (later) backup capabilities to paying customers only. While some people see this as an example of the open core licensing strategy, as we have previously explained, it is not. While open core is an extension of the dual licensing strategy with additional extensions, MySQL AB’s MySQL Enterprise, as the graphic above illustrates, actually paired the extensions with the open source MySQL Community – a subtle difference from the MySQL Enterprise licensing strategy adopted by Oracle (more of which later).

MySQL flirted with the open core licensing model in early 2008 with plans to introduce new features into Enterprise Edition that would not be available under an open source license. Those plans were ultimately reversed at the behest of new owner Sun Microsystems. To understand why Sun did this one must consider the company’s wider strategy for open source at the time. While a software freedom philosophy played a part, Jonathan Schwartz’s map of open source downloads, each representing ‘a potential customer that cost Sun nothing to acquire’, explains how Sun was less interested in driving direct revenue from MySQL (and other open source software) as it was in helping open source users to become customers for Sun’s commodity hardware and other products and services.

Sun never got the chance to prove whether this model would have worked (I’m being polite), but in any case contrast Sun’s approach with Oracle’s strategy for open source. While the majority of Oracle’s revenue clearly comes from other products, it is not looking to drive revenue for those products via open source downloads. Witness Larry Ellison’s recent proclamation that he doesn’t care if Oracle x86 server business (typically used to run MySQL) goes to zero. Instead (for better or worse) the company is focused on driving revenue directly from each individual product, whether that is a high margin server, or closed or open source software. That has resulted in an increased investment in embedded opportunities for MySQL, as well as traditional software license agreements. While customers might choose to use MySQL Community and purchase additional support subscriptions, as of November 2010 Oracle prefers that Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition customers enter into a commercial license agreement with the company. That was a strategy that was in place in advance of last week’s addition of high availability, scalability and security features, but one that clearly looks set to continue.

Whether this is a good or a bad thing depends on your perspective. Monty Widenius does a good job of outlining the down sides to an open core licensing strategy, while Giuseppe Maxia focuses on the positives. Certainly Oracle will have to be mindful to balance the control and community aspects, but as we have previously covered (451 Group clients) there are a number of new capabilities in development for the core MySQL database itself.

The training week itself was of course disrupted quite a bit by the events in New York. We had Jeremy who had come on a UA flight from the US, and others from all over the place… it also taught some students a lesson about browsing the net while in a training course, it can end up very distracting.

The oddest event I remember about that particular trip happened upon departure from Heathrow: someone with a clipboard went round the long queues asking whether anybody was carrying eyebrow tweezers. No other items/questions, just that.

I stayed with MySQL for about 6 years, until with a brief break, I started my own company Open Query in 2007 (about half a year before the Sun acquisition). So this September marks the 4-year anniversary of that event already. I spotted an old business card earlier, reminding me that early on we did not just MySQL consulting and training, but also (OSS) business advice – that’s now essentially spun off to Upstarta.

The MySQL side of my business has changed quite significantly as well, going from the usual reactive consulting to proactive subscriptions, in part based on Pythian‘s successful model. A key difference has been that we don’t do emergencies. This disruptive shift happened somewhat by luck, after a talk at Linux Users of Victoria in April 2009. Ben Dechrai made a video recording of this interactive “Relax! A Failure is not an Emergency…” try-out. It also mentioned the BlueHackers initiative/stickers.

While some people including competitors regard our “no emergencies” approach as nuts , it has worked out very well and apart from making customers happy it’s created the sane lifestyle I was looking for (so I could spend more time with my daughter), and enabled contracting others as well. We’re still growing organically, having adapted our internal tools and processes for the proactive service approach along the way – obviously, it’s now more about project management than handling incident tickets.

Like my time at MySQL AB, my journey since then has so far proven interesting, educational, and mostly enjoyable. Later in the year I aim to once again buy a house with a modest garden. And it’s the independence that’ll have made that -and my other explorations- possible. Who knows what lies ahead – most fun when you create your own future!

WikiLeaks Cable Offers New Insights into Oracle-Sun Deal (PC World)

Candidates should be prepared to work intensively with our developers and support organization when writing documentation. Being a distributed team,  we meet mostly on IRC and coordinate our work through email and versioning systems such as Subversion. The base format we're using is DocBook XML, and we're not just writing but also processing and publishing all our documentation ourselves.

This means you should be ready to use "non-wysiwyg" text editors, have a clue about XML and XSL, and be prepared to communicate over the Internet most of the time. Naturally, you should have some experience documenting database software. We're striving for high quality (good and understandable writing, accuracy, completeness, attention to details, timeliness) — people are actually reading the documentation we provide; our online viewable formats get millions of page views every month.

If you think you qualify, drop me a mail, and let me know what time would be best to get together on the phone.

Candidates should be prepared to work intensively with our developers and support organization when writing documentation. Being a distributed team,  we meet mostly on IRC and coordinate our work through email and versioning systems such as Subversion. The base format we're using is DocBook XML, and we're not just writing but also processing and publishing all our documentation ourselves.

This means you should be ready to use "non-wysiwyg" text editors, have a clue about XML and XSL, and be prepared to communicate over the Internet most of the time. Naturally, you should have some experience documenting database software. We're striving for high quality (good and understandable writing, accuracy, completeness, attention to details, timeliness) — people are actually reading the documentation we provide; our online viewable formats get millions of page views every month.

If you think you qualify, drop me a mail, and let me know what time would be best to get together on the phone.