Comment Articles

Sybase trial is a masquerade

David Berlind ZDNet.com

Published: 14 Sep 2004 14:30 BST

In a press release issued last week, with the headline "Sybase First to Provide Free Linux Enterprise-Class Database for Production Use", Sybase noted that it has "deepened its commitment to the Linux community with the availability of the first free deployment version of an enterprise-class Linux database -- Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) Express Edition for Linux."

Given the growing popularity of Linux as an unbloated host to server-based applications like Web, database and application servers), a freely deployable, enterprise-class database server can be a good thing. At first, open-source databases such as MySQL come to mind. But, in a subsequent email exchange with a Sybase spokesperson, I was also advised that going the open-source route would not only fail to provide me with enterprise-class solutions, but that "other 'free' databases have General Public License restrictions or complex open-source licensing issues that limit developers' ability to deploy their applications."

The company's implication -- that an open-source licence subjects licensees to intolerable restrictions that a commercial licence does not -- is an invitation to apply additional scrutiny to the entire Sybase campaign.

First, regarding the freely deployable nature of ASE for Linux, the fact is that there are some limitations. Users are free to deploy ASE for Linux as long as the systems on which they're deploying it are not very enterprisey. They can only have one CPU, no more than 5GB of data storage, and a maximum 2GB of memory. In other words, ASE for Linux is free only in specific configurations.

According to an InfoWorld report regarding the news, Forrester Research analyst Noel Yuhanna complained about the storage limitation, saying "For most customers, 5GB isn't enough -- projects using free, open-source databases tend to average 10GB to 20GB."

But there's another catch.