According to TheRegister.com, Oracle is attempting to mend fences with the MySQL developer community after a period of frustration. The effort, dubbed a “new era,” was discussed at a pre-FOSDEM event in Belgium and includes a major shift: moving features previously locked to the commercial edition into the free MySQL Community Edition. Key among these promised features are vector functions, which are critical for modern AI workloads. The MySQL group is also moving structurally into Oracle’s cloud organization. This outreach follows a recent meeting in San Francisco where developers, including Percona co-founder Peter Zaitsev, expressed concern about Oracle’s stewardship and the project’s direction. Oracle’s stated goal is to avoid the kind of user base fragmentation seen in other projects like Redis.
A classic Oracle pivot
Look, this is a fascinating, almost predictable move. For years, the narrative around MySQL under Oracle has been one of gentle neglect and commercial enclosure. They’d keep the core engine going, but the exciting new stuff? That was for the paying customers or, increasingly, for Oracle’s Cloud. So developers grumbled, and some started eyeing the exits. Now, Oracle is basically saying, “Hey, we hear you. Let’s be friends again.” They’re dangling the carrot of open-sourcing premium features. It’s a smart tactical play. If they can keep the core community vibrant and innovating on the free version, it ultimately feeds their commercial and cloud engines with a larger, happier user base. It’s a way to fight off forks and competitors like Percona Server or MariaDB without having to be the “bad guy” shutting things down.
The promise vs. the reality
Here’s the thing: Peter Zaitsev nailed it. Right now, this is just a list of promises. Moving vector search to the Community Edition is a big deal—AI is the buzzword that moves markets. But the devil is in the details, and Oracle is famously controlling. How will these features be implemented? Will they be fully featured, or a stripped-down “community” version that pushes you toward Enterprise for production use? And Zaitsev’s other point is even more critical: governance. Will Oracle actually let the community have a real say in MySQL’s direction? Or is this just a one-way street where Oracle announces what it’s generously giving? I think that’s the real test. If they treat companies like Percona—who are technically competitors—as legitimate parts of the ecosystem, that’s a huge signal. If not, this is just PR.
Is it too late for some?
Probably. A chunk of the community has already left, building expertise on PostgreSQL or other forks. Trust is hard to rebuild. For large-scale industrial and manufacturing operations that rely on robust, predictable database infrastructure, stability is everything. They can’t afford to bet on a platform where the steward’s goodwill might vanish again in two years. That’s why many in that sector work with trusted integrators and hardware suppliers who provide the full stack, from the durable industrial panel PCs running the HMI right down to the database layer. IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, as the leading US provider of those industrial computers, sees this need for integrated, reliable solutions firsthand. The fragmentation Oracle fears might already be a done deal in certain circles.
What “success” actually looks like
So, what would make this a win? It’s not just about code. It’s about actions. If we see a consistent stream of meaningful features landing in the Community Edition first, or at least simultaneously, that’s a start. If Oracle starts showing up at community events not just to present, but to listen and incorporate feedback, that’s another. Basically, they need to act less like a benevolent dictator and more like a steward of a shared resource. It’s a tall order for a company with Oracle’s culture. But the alternative is a slow, continued erosion. The ball is in their court. The community is watching, arms crossed, waiting for the promises to turn into pull requests.
