Licensing may not be an issue with mysql but it is an issue with commercial databases.
I use Informix with hundreds of users accessing the database for extremely short queries from a GUI. I cannot afford to have them connected constantly, I would have to spent $100,000 per server in licensing. Having them connect and disconnect for every query has cost me about $3,000 per server using concurrent user licensing.
Oi, Why would anyone want to pay thousands for that when there are so many free ones that work the same or better?
Tell you what, I'll build you an SQL server for the low low price of $10,000 incuding the hardware, OS, and database system.
I'd make about $9000 on the deal for doing hardly anything at all, which is what the informix people seem to be doing :)
Or I'll license you the same server that you can have persistant connections and unlimited queries for $3000 a year.
That way your apps will be faster running persistantly and you don't have to worry about too many queries costing you too much.
Does it really charge bases on the amount of queries or connection time?
I'm sure everyone has reasons for tossing cash into the fire but I'm not real clear on why...
Just .02 from a MySQL guy (IE mostly ignorant of the others by choice) :)
Sorry for being sort of OT, won't happen again :)
