I think Monty's really worried coz his company's (Monty Program Ab) fate is tied too closely to MySQL, and the company that now controls it. And that company is now slowly turning on the screws.

The dual-licensing model has finally come back to bite him. He can't dual license MySQL itself (his customers have to get a "commercial" licence directly from Sun), and since the standard "commercial" licence allegedly restricts users from using third-party plugins such as storage engines, he's caught between a rock and a hard place.

Companies are companies (more so, public companies), and their first and only interest is maximising profits. Not everyone was comfortable when MySQL Ab, or even Sun, controlled MySQL. And companies get bought all the time, so you never know who'll end up controlling MySQL.

For users, it may be better to go with something more community driven, such as PostgreSQL.

Joseph.