There is an interesting interview with MySQL on GrokLaw today:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20051011211450706

They seem to have followed our discussion on positioning statements
earlier this summer and now Marten Mickos has to do the same work for
his Oracle-owned database. Firebird leads the way once more :^)

From the interview:

<quote>
If you are interested in our values, here is how I describe them:

- Care
- Performance
- Integrity
- Simplicity
- Freedom

The following text is from an internal pamphlet I am working on:

CARE

This value is the "we" thinking of our organisation – the spirit
of MySQL, without which we would have no dreams and no joy.

First and foremost we care about each other – about the MySQL
employees. This is not because we would be self-centric. It is
because we think this is the best way to be able to serve customers
and shareholders. If our employees are taken well care of and are
given demanding challenges and expected to live up to them, everyone
will benefit. "Care" does not mean pampering. It means offering a
stimulating work environment where members of the team can together
develop, thrive and reach self-actualisation. It is about providing
positive feedback and about celebrating success. When that happens,
all the rest is easy!

PERFORMANCE

The performance value has its roots in the thinking of our
founders. Monty and David from the start had an absolute devotion to
creating the fastest possible software. They architected MySQL to
have high performance - and that's what MySQL to a large extent is
famous for. But it was not only performance in the sense of
throughput in the database. It was also performance in the sense of
low latency, and in the sense of powerful commands that saved the
developer's or user's time. For instance, establishing and cutting a
connection to the database server is very fast. And it is also
performance in the sense of getting the work done in a timely fashion.

INTEGRITY

Integrity is something the world would need more of. If every
human being had uncompromised integrity, we might perhaps have the
same amount of conflict in the world, but we would have much less of
cruelty, disappointment, resentment and bitterness.

SIMPLICITY

The simplicity value is perhaps the least obvious one. Why is it
important to strive for simplicity? Aren't there situations where
complexity is needed and justified? For us, the answer is no. We have
chosen a business model and an operational model in which we take
complex issues and package them simplistically.

We relentlessly look for simplicity, but not just any simplicity.
We seek the "simplicity on the far side of complexity". This is the
clarity you reach when you have thoroughly studied and understood the
complex issue at hand. When that happens, you can create an
abstraction layer which for your users and customers is simple
although it is built on top of a complex issue. Or to borrow Antoine
de Saint-Exupery: "Perfection is reached not when there is nothing
more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove."

FREEDOM

Last but not least, the word freedom guides all actions we take.
We are proponents of the freedom of software (as defined by the Free
Software Foundation), and we are proponents of free markets and free
competition in global markets.

On another plane, we have a desire to have freedom of thought and
freedom of mind. We ask ourselves Why? and we ask Why Not? There are
many wheels that already have been invented, and there is no use in
reinventing them. But many other wheels are either outdated or have
not been invented yet. This is where freedom of mind is useful. It
allows us to find new solutions to problems old and new, and it
allows us to build new types of technology and new types of business.
It is the notion of focusing on opportunities rather than problems.
This is what sets us apart from all our competitors.
</quote>