Dear Commissioner Kroes,

Last week, former MySQL CEO Mårten Mickos wrote you a letter urging approval of Oracle’s takeover of Sun Microsystems ((via Matt Asay’s CNET Blog – Mickos letter to EU: “Approve Oracle-Sun deal”)), asserting that Oracle’s ownership of MySQL (as part of the Sun acquisition) will increase competition in the market.

As a long-time MySQL user, a former MySQL AB staff member ((from 2001 to 2004, I served as MySQL’s community liaison)) and a participant in or consultant to a wide range of other open source and free software projects ((including multiple years serving on Free Software Foundation’s license compliance team, working as a Mozilla Foundation staff member and volunteering for the Open Source Initiative)), I found Mårten’s conclusion to be optimistic at best.

Oracle’s ownership of MySQL will lead to what the commission fears – greater costs and less choice in the DBMS market.

A few days ago, Amit Sharma from Packt Publishing contacted me to see if I’d be interested in doing a free review of PHP Team Development by Samisa Abeysinghe.

With most publishers, I’d have demurred – my work on LexPublica leaves me with little enough time for family, friends and clients – however, I have a soft spot for innovators like Packt, O’Reilly and No Starch.

As most readers of this blog know, the publishing industry is undergoing massive (and painful) change. Over the last decade, I’ve watched good presses get eaten up, squeezed hard or simply closed down. The market around information has changed and it’s been tough for the publishing industry to adapt.

Earlier today, a friend remarked that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s apology for the UK government’s deeply unjust treatment of Alan Turing was “not good enough”.

Perhaps not. There is no apology that can mend the deep injustices of the past. There is no kiss that can wake Alan Mathison Turing from the poison apple’s eternal sleep.

However, this isn’t about the unchangeable past. This is about the future.

#10’s statement on Turing was catalyzed by one person (and hats off to you, John Graham-Cumming for being the sand in the oyster.) One person and then tens of thousands of others who embrace justice. That, my dear friends, is getting closer to enough.