I was working on a server today that was not hooked up to our usual monitoring systems for one reason or another and I needed to generate a database tuning report. Typically I use Matthew Montgomery’s ‘tuning-primer.sh’ script for this since it’s command line based, simple to use, and generates a number of useful items for tuning recommendations. It’s a great starting point before delving into the deeper aspects of MySQL and the OS.
I ran into an issue with it on this server that was running the MySQL 5.0.77-percona-highperf-b13-log x86_64 build. The error was:
./tuning-primer.sh.1: line 517: 5.000000: syntax error in expression (error token is ".000000")
There were three options to fix this issue
- Dive into the code and modify it cowboy style
- Use our typical monitoring against the client’s wishes
- Contact the developer to get a fix
I hopped on IRC.freenode.net to the #mysql channel and found Matthew online. Long story short he narrowed it down to the version of MySQL being from Percona that was changing the format of the variable in question vs the typical MySQL variable type. After discussing the matter he released a new build to address this change and I was on my way to generating reports again.That is quality support that you won’t see from the likes of Microsoft or Apple or any big closed-source player.
If there’s on thing to take away from this story it’s the Open Source Software will ALWAYS be better than closed source because of the hands on attitude and direct contact you can get with the developers or, at the minimum, with the large user community that is willing and able to help troubleshoot. Why are people able to help? Because the code is open and free – and people like free software that they can improve and fix themselves – and those people like to help others because we’ve all needed help at some point or another, no matter how much of an expert you are.
If there are two things to take away it’s to remember that IRC is a wealth of useful information and support for Open Source applications. You can find me on the #mysql, ##php, #perl, #extjs, and #codeigniter channels under various usernames – or idling in the #kontrollbase channel for supporting my own application.
Closed source apps are the old way to do business, the rotting steel skeletons from the industrial age of computing… Open Source is the brainy kid down the street that doesn’t want to rip you off for something that some nameless big corporation designed overseas for pennies on the dollar just to turn a profit and sell you something with crappy support and non-auditable code. Long live OSS!
#1 by Doug on 2009/11/04 - 2:14 pm
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“If there’s on thing to take away from this story it’s the Open Source Software will ALWAYS be better than closed source because of the hands on attitude and direct contact you can get with the developers or, at the minimum, with the large user community that is willing and able to help troubleshoot.”
“ALWAYS”? Is it really necessary to use absolutes like this? What if the open source software is not popular and therefore not well supported, would that be better than having a premium support plan with a closed-source software application?
#2 by admin on 2009/11/04 - 3:09 pm
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I’m going to go ahead and say that I believe that open source it is always better – businesses should make money on SaaS and support contracts, not selling their code. There are plenty of examples where millions of people all over the world have benefited from free software and where the parent company makes millions selling support (when people need support because they don’t hire good engineers or RTFM themselves): Redhat, MySQL, Ubuntu, Untangle, etc. The beauty is that if you are smart and don’t need support you get to use all of the great apps for free. And if you aren’t smart enough to not have support you can pay for it – you’re of the paying mindset anyway so what’s the difference if some people don’t have to pay for the app.
Why anyone thinks that paying for software is a reasonable thing to do confuses me. Maybe that makes me more of a sharing, use my code if you find it useful, here’s how to use it because I am a nice guy and will show you how for free or write detailed documentation, giving back to the community, share and use alike kinda guy. Not sure how to say it more clearly: give back to the software community and keep the movement rolling. For too long people and companies have been screwed by large software firms gauging budgets with their licensing BS. The world does not have to work that old, greedy, selfish way and this is an important time to make that change – defending closed source software not only fails to make logical or financial sense, it’s just selfish.
#3 by Doug on 2009/11/04 - 3:28 pm
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Wait a second, I thought we were referring to the quality of support, and not other issues here. Out of millions of cases, if there just ONE case where support would be better from a closed support app, then you can’t say “ALWAYS”, can you? And I already gave an example of this: an unpopular open source app vs a premium support contract with a closed support app. Therefore a ‘smart’ person would realize that you can’t say “ALWAYS”, agreed?
#4 by admin on 2009/11/04 - 3:44 pm
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Still going to go with Always on it – if no one buys the closed source apps because they have fundamental beliefs that they live by that don’t involve paying for software then eventually closed source apps won’t be viable in the market and you will only pay for support if you need it. An unpopular app is something that can happen closed or open source – and changes are it’s unpopular because it’s junk. But with your example, you can look at all of the great alternatives in open source right now and see plenty of popularity vs the closed source alternative. Look at Open Office – whole governments are using it instead of MS Office because of the cost difference…. let’s just get down to the real thing here: if there are two apps in your example it’s not very long before someone smart comes along and offers app #3 which is open source and built on the SaaS/support model. The unpopular app will either die off or stay unpopular, the fee-based app will get less popular (look at IE vs firefox) and have to change their business model or pricing structures (Microsoft Windows 7 vs Vista pricing structures as well as Windows vs Linux in the server and now with Ubuntu on the desktop market), and the open source app will gain popularity.
There will always be people that think they’re getting something from closed source over open source but they either don’t know the facts, or are just stubborn people that refuse to come to terms with the times. Just wait, eventually closed source will be the minority. I personally don’t know anyone that buys any software and hasn’t since they started using Linux or a BSD, and discounting the price of OSX that’s tagged onto a system the mac users I know also don’t pay for software now they can run open office, firefox, gmail, gimp, pidgin, adium, xchat, etc and any X11 apps they need to. Microsoft has their users in a bind, sucking down system resources with bloatware, viruses, and a terrible EULA.
#5 by Doug on 2009/11/04 - 4:39 pm
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You’re looking at this from a general perspective, while I’m delving down specifically into one thing you wrote and concluded that this cannot be true in every case:
“Open Source Software will ALWAYS be better than closed source”
There may be alternatives to the unpopular open source software, but if one continues to use the unpopular open source software with no support, theoretically there may be an instance where closed source software provides better support.
#6 by admin on 2009/11/04 - 4:51 pm
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True, I am looking at it from a general perspective – but on a case by case basis I have yet to see this to be the case for any applications that I have ever needed and many people that I know and work with concur. I’ll give it to you ‘in-theory’ that there could and might be instances where what you are arguing is true but you’re debating about semantics at this point when we could be better spending our time discussing how the software world could make the world a better place be being more accessible. Many countries can’t afford to use expensive licensed apps, which is one of the reasons you see OSes like Linux and apps like Open Office dominating 2nd and 3rd world countries where productivity and budget is prized over whatever nonsense closed-source companies aim to sell as benefits disguised as greed.