So they have a history of using the legitimacy, trust, and infrastructure of the open-source ecosystem to grow adoption and contributions, then gradually shifting constraints in favor of monetization and control?
Either way, the math is different this time. SQLite isn’t heavy server-side software written in Java with weaknesses that leave it obviously open for market disruption.
It’s also a public domain gift to the world that literally everything has deployed — often in extremely demanding and complex environments.
I work for a major consumer product manufacturer, and I can guarantee that we will not be switching away from SQLite anytime soon, and if we ever do, it will not be to a VC-backed project with a history like this one has, no matter how much hype startup bros try to create around the idea of disrespectful and appropriative disruption.
VC-funded ‘open’ databases almost always follow the same arc: borrow legitimacy, capture attention, then fence it off. It’s the inevitability of the incentives they’ve chosen.
