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Open-Source Software: It’s the Free Coffee Cup of Today

February 14, 2008
by Michael Kanellos
Editor at Large, CNET News.com

Michael Kanellos

Companies used to give away pens, squishy balls and coffee cups to worm their ways into the hearts of customers. Now, they pass out database software. That is, in a sense, Sun Microsystems’ strategy with its $1 billion purchase of MySQL, said Sun CFO Mike Lehman at Sun’s Global Media Summit here today. Very few customers have or will pay for MySQL, he admitted. However, they are installing it in large and growing numbers, and that gives Sun an opportunity to visit them and try to sell them servers and storage systems.

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