Free software and open source databases

The emergence of free/open source software -FS/OSS- enterprises seeks to push software development out of the academic stream into the commercial mainstream, and as a result, end-user applications such as open source database management systems (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Firebird) are becoming more popular. Companies like Sybase, Oracle, Sun, IBM are increasingly implementing open source strategies and porting programs/applications into the Linux environment. Open source software is redefining the software industry in general and database development in particular.