MySQL Licesing in SUSE Enterprise 10.1 SP1

The MySQL Community Edition is free.  The other versions that are not free include support and features that are not available in the MySQL Community Edition.  http://www.mysql.com/products/   The MySQL Community Edition is likely the most widely used database in the world.

thanks for the comment, but does not answer my question... Do I need to pay if I'm using a database from the MySQL version (5.0.26) that comes with SuSE 10 SP1?

I don't need support, additional features and/or updates....

Mysql has two licensing modes. The free one requires a particular disclosure. If you are fine with that, use the free version. Otherwise, buy a license.

If you are an integrator that provides a custom solution for which you charge, you likely should obtain a license.  Otherwise, you are required by the GPL to disclose info on the software.

You are paying for a license for suse ENT.

Log in to your MySQL server and type:

SELECT VERSION();

If it says 'community' in the response then you do not need a license.

I just noticed, when you login, the third line is the version.  

I don't see any way at the moment to get the complete version info without logging in.  'mysql -?' will just give the numerical version but doesn't say whether it is Enterprise or Community.

This is the information that I'm getting from YAST....


mysql - A True Multiuser, Multithreaded SQL Database Server
Version: 5.0.26-12.8 Installed: 5.0.26-12.8 Size: 31.8 M Media No.: 0
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Package Group: Productivity/Databases/Servers
Provides: /etc/init.d/mysql, /etc/logrotate.d/mysql, /etc/my.cnf,
/usr/bin/innochecksum, /usr/bin/my_print_defaults, /usr/bin/myisam_ftdump,

Community: License: GNU General Public License (GPL)

so that means that I do not have to pay to use MySQL, right?

That's correct.  Actually, you would probably know already if you had one of the commercial versions since their subscriptions start at $2000 a year.  You can't 'buy' MySQL commercial versions but you can 'subscribe' to them.

Basically, what I'm looking is to avoid those costs.... I just need to install the components and run some queries against MySQL.... and $2000 per year is a craziness... I rather pay MSSQL... ONCE!

MSSQL won't run on Suse.  But if you were on Windows, you could get the free version, SQLExpress server.  But I'm not recommending it.

I know... I'm just saying that instead be paying $2000 every year for a license, I rather to pay a full windows conversion once.... because it will cheaper in the long run...

Fortunately, we don't have to.  I pay $10 a month for one hosting account and $15 a month for another one with PHP and MySQL on both.  Also have PHP and MySQL on more than 10 computers here, Linux, Mac, and Windows.

The option to pay is up to you.
Using the free GPL version comes with certain requirements. I.e. if I were to buy your product, you would be obligated as part of the GPL to disclose certain information related to the product you sold.

Ok... but the extract below, doesn't sound exactly like that... to me is like I should provide source code of any library GPL used, but not my own code, correct????

Use of licensed software

However, software running as an application program under a GPL-licensed operating system such as Linux is not required to be licensed under GPL or to be distributed with source-code availability—the licensing depends only on the used libraries and software components and not on the underlying platform.[37] For example if a program consists only of own original custom software, or is combined with source code from other software components,[38] then the own custom software components need not be licensed under GPL and need not make their code available; even if the underlying operating system used is licensed under the GPL, applications running on it are not considered derivative works.[37] Only if GPLed parts are used in a program (and the program is distributed), then all other source code of the program needs to be made available under the same license terms. The GNU Lesser General Public license (LGPL) was created to have a weaker copyleft than the GPL, in that it does not require own custom-developed source code (distinct from the LGPLed parts) to be made available under the same license terms.

I don't have SP, just some queries, but either those queries along with the DB schema are provided...

Yes, that's my next step in that regards.... thanks so much!