An open letter signed by architects, DBAs, and engineers argues that closed development, missing AI‑era features, and declining commits demand a foundation-led model that includes Oracle but restores roadmap transparency.

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A community of 248+ database professionals—including engineers from Percona, MariaDB, PlanetScale, DigitalOcean, and Pinterest—has signed an open letter urging Oracle to transfer MySQL governance to an independent non-profit foundation. Key concerns include declining commit activity (from 22,360 commits in 2010 to 4,730 in 2024), shrinking contributor pool (135 in 2017 vs. ~75 in 2025), lack of AI-era features, opaque roadmap, and growing fragmentation across forks. The proposed foundation model would include a technical steering committee with Oracle, fork providers, and cloud vendors, while letting Oracle retain commercial offerings and trademarks. Analysts are skeptical the model fully resolves power dynamics as long as Oracle controls the trademark and release pipeline, noting PostgreSQL's community-led governance as a contrasting success story.

Community push intensifies to free MySQL from Oracle’s control amid stagnation fears