No, this is not a blog post on the endless battle between end user and developers as a result of them not understanding each other. No, this post is about "what determines the value of a software/service company". Is it the number of end users or the developers/service people?

I used to hate to travel. But I am starting to like to travel more and more. I like going to new places. I like my life Zurich, but I also love Berlin and all the great people that live there. Of course I also want to see my family in Florida. Meet with all of you guys at conferences around the world. And last but not least, play Ultimate Frisbee all around the globe. That being said, I was also taught to not trash the planet. Zak recently reminded us that we should therefore try and take a step back from all this traveling and figure out how we can live within this ever more connected world in a more responsible manner. However, I also do not want to feed into the frenzy that traveling is the only thing people should think of when it comes to cutting down their CO2 emissions. Of course the most direct and reliable way to reduce CO2 emissions is to constrain ourselves. If we are unwilling to do that, we should at least optimize and that is what this blog post is about.

I came across this very thought provoking blog post by Brain Aker of MySQL and /. fame. I think he raises some very important points about OSS development and how to create a successful new project. However some of the advice can also be applied retroactively to existing projects. I especially find his comments regarding "old boys clubs" important. Sometimes when you have a successful project it becomes hard to manage the influx of new people. So the old boys start to feel most comfy when they ignore the new guys. Patches are a good basis (though you still need people to have a look at the patches) of judgement to let new guys in. After all with good patches the project should be moving forward. I think in PHP we have a very similar policy to the "Three Commits, Ding, Ding, Ding" policy Brain applies. And that is a good thing.

Well we are all quite excited about what's going on with MySQL AB. We have read the talk about MySQL 6.0 and the upcoming Falcon storage engine. We have read the news about SUN having bought up MySQL AB and how this is going to improve their abilities. We also took note about Monty's first blog posts and the announcement of the Maria storage engine. But in the middle of this, I wonder if the priorities are sorted properly.

We just had an internal discussion about if sticking with PHP limits your career options. And just now (coincidence?) I noticed blog posts in the PHP and MySQL community noting similar concerns. The issue is that there is simply not enough top qualified talent that knows LAMP well enough to hire. Or maybe its just too hard to find them? It seems all the good guys are already hired. As a result companies end up looking for other technology, not because they actually believe that these technologies are any better or worth the license fees that these usually require to be paid up ..