Fortune Magazine Profiles MySQL AB 63
hdtv writes "Fortune magazine profiles MySQL AB, a midsize company with a fairly large footprint. Fortune magazine popped in on another corporate party, which just happened to take place online across countries and continents." From the article: "'When a company is as spread out as this one,' Basil explains, 'you have to think of virtual ways to imitate the dynamics of what goes on in a more familiar employment situation.' That neatly sums up the broader challenge that many companies are confronting: how to nurture a bond among workers who rarely, if ever, meet. Few businesses are as spread out as MySQL, which employs 320 workers in 25 countries, 70 percent of whom work from home."
Ha (Score:4, Interesting)
Now that's how to gain customers! Insult them in FORTUNE magazine!
Re:Ha (Score:2, Insightful)
Doug
Re:Ha (Score:4, Funny)
If Larry Wall wasn't lazy, he probably woulda created Perl to be more like Python
Re:Ha (Score:2, Interesting)
Naw, that's too easy.
Sensible?
That's just a dream. After all, what good is a language that doesn't provide 6 ways to do everything? Everyone should have their choice of syntax for common operations. That's what freedom is all about!
Perl's popularity is entirely predicated upon the fact that it was the only thing available. The alternative languages are so much better now that only CPAN saves the entire thing from falling into obscurity (and even that won't last forever.)
Larry Wall Quote (Score:2, Insightful)
Its not clear that Michael and Larry are using the same definition of lazy. Larry is clearly talking about the fact that better automation results is less effort.
As for other comments about languages where the coder does not even put in the "{}"s... well go figure.
Re:Ha (Score:2)
Perl 6?
Re:Ha (Score:1)
He wasn't directing that (IMHO realistic) sentiment toward MySQL customers. He was making a generalization relating to how employees would like to behave if given a managerial reprieve as a result of their obvious distance from the main office.
Re:Ha (Score:1)
I'd also agree, most people are lazy and greedy, especially the ones I've met climbing the ladders in the corporate world. I was just discussing with a friend of mine, if it wasn't for the people below, the people on top would be lost & confused on a daily basis even with things like checking their email
Re:Ha (Score:1)
Re:Ha (Score:1)
Re:Ha (Score:2)
Well, being that people are greedy and lazy, that is why they use MySQL. This is not a troll, but MySQL is a fast, cheap, and a lazy man's DB.
And, yes, I'm lazy and an MySQL user/admin. I'm not that greedy though. Sorry.
Re:Ha (Score:1)
Now that's how to gain customers! Insult them in FORTUNE magazine!
See, now, if this guy read Slashdot, he'd know that unpopular comments are a big no-no, doesn't matter how insightful they are
yes.. quite the model company (Score:1)
Wouldn't that exclude most of
They really seem to like their workers spread out don't they?
Re:yes.. quite the model company (Score:5, Funny)
Nerds make good software engineers.
A defining characteristics of nerds is that people don't like them.
Nerds are people too.
Conclusion:
Nerds don't like other nerds, and are happier with distance between them.
Re:yes.. quite the model company (Score:2)
Actually, in the US, it might violate some hiring discrimination laws. I think. Maybe. Any lawyers reading this?
Re:yes.. quite the model company (Score:2)
However, I'm fairly certain that requiring people to have wives to hire them would be illegal under swedish law. IANAL, but i'm pretty sure.
I work in a distributed organisation (Score:2)
Last weekend, I met the vice-president of the organisation I work for for the first time. I've been working there over a year. I think I've met my boss 5 times.
We try to go to free software [compsoc.com] conferences more than normal so that we all bump into each other.
Other than that, it's pretty much email all the way, with a little irc.
The next big free software conference in Europe is the 3rd international GPLv3 conference [fsfeurope.org] in Barcelona, June 22/23.
Before that, I saw my boss in Manchester, England, and before
You know what they say about companies with big... (Score:4, Funny)
They wear big shoes.
InnoDB fulltext in 2018? (Score:1, Interesting)
Buy your employees online games (Score:2, Interesting)
Or you could more closely emmulate a real-world meeting with a sandbox game like Second Life and actually create a meeting area. With Second Life you could even show slideshows and stream a video presentation (given that
Re:Buy your employees online games (Score:3, Interesting)
I work for a large, global company. Most of the people on my team are in foreign countries. Time zones can make it difficult to find good meeting times, but web conferencing and IP telephony make actual communication fairly painless.
Re:Buy your employees online games (Score:1)
You know, a once a week or bi-weekly team-building thing.
I think it could be fun.
Of course, as you point out it would depend heavily on business type and employee demographic as well.
Maybe it's a bad idea, I can accept that possibility - I'm pretty experienced with bad ideas. But I think it's important to try new things. After a
Re:Buy your employees online games (Score:2)
If you expect actual business to be conducted at something like that, I think you
Re:Buy your employees online games (Score:1)
But yes, undeniably it would be fun.
--
Music should be free [myspace.com]
Re:Buy your employees online games (Score:1)
Re:Buy your employees online games (Score:4, Interesting)
Been there. At my
MMORPG's can build teams, yes, but they are designed to suck people in so fast and hard that they don't even realise it when they don't come out. I have no problem with this post if it was meant as a joke, but "insightful" is the worst moderation I've seen in years.
Re:Buy your employees online games (Score:2)
To commute or not to commute that is the ... (Score:5, Informative)
Anyhow back to the article... spot talent among the company's army of volunteers - a minor league for software programmers. I wouldn't agree with that statement in the article. Most software programmers who do open source programming often have professional programming jobs. Calling them "minor league" is off the mark... There are a few other issues with the article as well: Civilians are being enticed to work free. MySQL owes them nothing for their efforts. Contributors are doing work for enjoyment, for getting a good product they can use. MySQL should and probably does show them via acknowledgment appreciation via mentions. I mean think of placing "MySQL Developer" on a resume. It holds weight...
How long can that last? Eventually, it would seem, these hard-working geeks are bound to feel exploited - or migrate to another product's fan club. Even Widenius acknowledges the possibility. For those that do go, others will pop up in their place. Many choose to support this environment because it is beneficial in the long run to them. If I started a SOHO company, why wouldn't I contribute if I'm getting the program for free as opposed to dishing out for Oracle.
"These users have their own needs to satisfy," he says. "Their main motivation is that they are lazy, and once they fix a problem, they want the fix to be in the next version of the software so they don't have to make the same changes again." I wouldn't call the users lazy by reporting problems. I would call them content with getting a good stable product and contributing to the product.
Fortune + F/OSS. And we expected....? (Score:2)
They don't understand the motive. It shows in their writing: it seems they perceive how the ordinary business part works quite well, and they're impressed, but the open-source part they just don't get at all. It baffles them, it angers them, that people will behave in ways the cash-profit motive doesn't predict.
And if the notion that MySQL's customers actually acknowledge their own laziness — that they know quite well they're paying MySQL to do
Parthenogenesis? (Score:5, Funny)
I can understand existing without a wife or girlfriend. (This is Slashdot.)
But without parents? The last young bachelor who claimed to be the product of parthenogenesis wound up nailed to a tree.
These days, that's bad for business. Can you imagine trying to explain it to his HMO three days later?
Wowsers (Score:5, Funny)
That's a lot of employees! They need an Oracle db!
what some fail to understand (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:what some fail to understand (Score:3, Interesting)
That said, there is no reason why smaller plants couldn't be built providing they were close to the raw materials. Personally, it really bothers my that we have all our refineries clustered together. It really makes them vunerable to attack or natural disaters.
I think as the world become
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:MySQL is the exception to the rule (Score:2)
Management problems? (Score:2)
Man, I hate when managers refer to their direct reports as sheeple!
--Rob
sounds like my old co. (Score:1, Interesting)
We mostly all telecommuted, except for the partners who all worked in their main office 2 steps from the beach. They would even buy lunch EVERYDAY for in-house staff, or staff who happened to be in the office that day. It was a great group of people and a great company to work for, even though it was small and on a (somewhat) tight budget.
I worked via telecommute (phone, I
Re:why: because its powerful and cost-effective (Score:2)
MySQL is completely free of charge for all companies, commercial or not, provided the company isn't redistributing MySQL outside the company, notably as part of its own products. Support contracts are per-server (except for the MySQL Cluster engine), not per-seat and are optional (though recommended for any serious business, of course).
Those who do get to pay are those who dist
Lawsuite invitation (Score:2, Interesting)
Not a lawsuit invitation but an empowering company (Score:2)
MySQL's Support group includes:
Avoid the men, look for the women... (Score:1)
I bet he looks for young women with a wife or girlfriend instead! At least I would. ;-)
Fortune profiles MySQL (Score:4, Funny)
Distributed Organisation (Score:5, Informative)
The whole idea behind the distributed organisation is an interesting one, and we are very proud to be featured in Fortune Magazine. And we wouldn't be there where it not for the support from our community - so thank you!
As for the quote that was attributed to me, it is not correct word by word. My point was that if you work from your home, it is important that you have some other devotion too, in addition to the company you work for (MySQL in this case). Otherwise you may lose perspective. That other devotion can be nearly anything. For Erik Granström in Sweden it is his family, his sheep farm (yes, he is also a farmer), and writing books.
I would be keen to hear how others deal with this. What tricks and techniques do you have for enjoying working from home, for being productive, for being social with colleagues who are thousands of kilometers/miles away? Let us know!
Marten Mickos, CEO, MySQL AB
Re:Distributed Organisation (Score:2)
Re:Distributed Organisation (Score:1)
Now, I completely understand the importance of having a life outside
Hybrid (Score:1)
Wasn't MySQL AB recently purchased by Oracle? Just curious...
caught again? (Score:1)
this gives a whole new twist to the "not in the same state" excuse ;)
* lon3st4r *