Oracle on the move

My last few years at Microsoft, the XML team has been reporting under SQL Server. That meant that at division all-hands meetings and such, I got to hear all sorts of hoopla about SQL Server vs Oracle, etc.. It also lead to some interesting hallway discussions about the threat of LAMP, MySQL, etc..

So first Oracle goes and buys InnoDB, the provider of the transaction-safe storage engine for MySQL. That sure puts MySQL at a disadvantage. InnoDB was key to their 'I'm a grownup' story. Sure, they still have access to the source-code, but with Oracle pulling the strings, I doubt they can expect much investment in the public release.

Oracle has acquired Sleepycat! I can't think how may placed I've used BerkeleyDB back before I joined Microsoft, and was working on web apps. Now, Sleepycat has been working on a number of things beyond the basic library of yore, and it may be that these higher layers are why Oracle bought them. Or it may be that BerkeleyDB is at the kernel of so many things, including apparently other parts of MySQL!! (Sorry, I can't seem to find the link that indicated that.)

The final part that interests me the most about this, is that by weakening MySQL, Oracle is also giving Microsoft a leg up. SQL Server grew mostly by building a strong small-business base, where Oracle was almost non-existent. MySQL was a serious threat to that business. With SQL-Express and MySQL on less stabile footing, Microsoft is in a pretty good position. Now all we need are some good persistence layers for .Net... Java has them fall out of it's ears. Are there some that I'm missing? I don't follow this space much, as most of my programming is lower-level than that.