Open source database vendor MySQL AB is preparing itself for an initial public offering, and could even be ready to go public before the end of the year, according to its CEO Marten Mickos.

Just before the holiday's MySQL refined its licensing scheme from “GPLv2 or later” to “GPLv2 only“, in order to make it an option, not an obligation for the company to move to GPLv3.

Specifically, this means that copyright notice in the MySQL source code files will change from referring to “either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version” to “version 2” only, in the MySQL 5.0 and MySQL 5.1 code bases.

Open source company MySQL AB, which puts out the well-known database of the same name, has made a couple of moves this year, both of which have passed without much comment.

In relation to yesterdays story 'MySQL Quietly Drops Support For Debian Linux', it appears that Debain IS supported.

"MySQL quietly deprecated support for most Linux distributions on October 16, when its 'MySQL Network' support plan was replaced by 'MySQL Enterprise.' MySQL now supports only two Linux distributions — Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. We learned of this when MySQL declined to sell us support for some new Debian-based servers. Our sales rep 'found out from engineering that the current Enterprise offering is no longer supported on Debian OS.' We were told that 'Generic Linux' in MySQL's list of supported platforms means 'generic versions of the implementations listed above'; not support for Linux in general."

Open-Xchange Inc., the leading provider of open source collaboration software, announced that it has signed a partnership and support agreement with MySQL AB, the developer of the world’s most popular open source database. This partnership enables Open-Xchange to embed the MySQL database into its leading open source collaboration server.

Toto-Lotto Niedersachsen GmbH has standardized on MySQL® for all its appropriate future IT needs. The German lottery company based its selection on the success it has had using MySQL Cluster to run its online business applications.

The Sage Group plc has signed a global agreement with MySQL AB which enables Sage to embed MySQL database technology into its world-wide product portfolio.