SAP is one of the largest software corporations in the world. It ranks at the same level as such giants as Oracle, IBM, Microsoft.
SAP mostly operates on the corporate market: its most widely-known software is its ERP system. Recently SAP also moved to in-memory database areas with HANA, and also acquired a lot of companies in mobile and other market segments.
One of the products that SAP offers is their database MaxDB. This is an entry-level database management system, compatible with their ERP product among other applications. There was a time when MaxDB was available under GPL license. It is no longer so, as of release 7.6.
However, SAP announced on the 1st of April 2014 another strategic change in their licensing model. Not only MaxDB, but a whole set of other SAP applications, including ERP system, will be GPL-licensed.
If you are not aware what GPL license is, I can give you a simple example: this is the license that allows Unix, Linux and other software to be free and open to everyone. Free as a beer and free as freedom.
SAP Expert welcomes this change and hopes that SAP and SAP eco-system will only benefit from this wise decision.
Before you start ranting… please note – this article was published on the 1st of April 2014… don’t be silly 