451 Group survey - user concerns about Oracle's proposed ownership of MySQL

My colleagues Matthew Aslett and Jay Lyman recently published the results of a survey of 371 open source users (the blog post concerning this survey can be found here). These folks were queried to examine their thoughts about their concerns about the fate of MySQL Oracle's intention to acquire Sun Microsystems.

Here are a few of the top concerns expressed by the survey respondents.

• The use of MySQL is expected to decline from 82.1% of the 347 respondents today as 78.7% expect to be using it in 2011, declining to 72.3% 2014.

• The proposed acquisition of MySQL by Oracle has a part to play in that decline. 15% of all open source users and 14.4% of current MySQL users responded that they would be less likely to use MySQL if it is acquired by Oracle.

• MariaDB usage is expected to rise from zero usage today to 3.5% of all users in 2011 and 3.7% in 2014

• The majority - 57.9% of all users and 63.9% of MySQL users - indicated that they would continue to use MySQL where appropriate, however.

Do you think that these concerns are appropriate and reasonable?