[Python-ideas] Official MySQL module

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Andrew Barnert writes:

 > This means there's no such word as "third party" in open source.

The distinction remains useful.  As pointed out earlier, there's the
user (first party), the project (second party), and the distributor(s)
(third party) of any modules that neither first nor second party
controls.  The point of the distinction is that the user therefore
bears a risk that the second party's product will not work as the user
desires because of changes or bugs in the third party project.  This
can be due to bugs the third party doesn't acknowledge, or because of
new features that the user wants/needs that the project doesn't
support.

True, that risk is mitigated in open source because the first two
parties have an additional option: one can *take* responsibility for a
third party module (by cooperating with the third party, for example),
or even take control (of a forked version).  Nevertheless, the risk
remains.

I don't have an opinion on whether that risk is prohibitive for MySQL
(or PostgreSQL).  But it is an important consideration, and the term
"third party" is a useful abbreviation for it.

BTW:

 > Open source software isn't built by corporations for their own
 > corporate interest, but by people for their own personal needs.

Nobody builds *open source* software.  People (including corporate
"persons") build *software*, then maybe they release it as a
proprietary product, or as open source, or both.

The problem with corporations is that they have a fiduciary
responsibility to produce income for their owners, which often
overrides considerations of voluntary cooperation.