Several years ago I had the need of keep in sync three computers.  After some questions on a java mailing list, a very smart guy suggested me Unison.

Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

Unison shares a number of features with tools such as configuration management packages (CVS, PRCS, Subversion, BitKeeper, etc.), distributed filesystems (Coda, etc.), uni-directional mirroring utilities (rsync, etc.), and other synchronizers (Intellisync, Reconcile, etc). However, there are several points where it differs:[...]

read the rest on  Unison File Synchronizer.

Unison seems a bit lost in cyberspace (no new features) but the users mailing list spot some activity, so I will suggest to give it a try, because its sync alghoritm is very well written, and the MS-Window interface is good.

Slashdot underlines there are too much forks of MySQL on the way.

After leaving MySQL, Michael “Monty” Widenius started its own code fork, backed up with a company.

The nerds think the destiny of MySQL is unclear, but it is still too early to get a clear vision.

After acquisition of Sun by Oracle, it is difficult to see a future for MySQL.
Oracle has already a “non-commercial” developer-based license of Oracle, and there will be little interest in maintaining a competitor. The two forks above was an early signs of “brains escape” from MySQL.

Anyway, we will go forward to see what will happen.

Some times ago I have the lucky to read  “Producing Open Source Software“:

[...] a book about the human side of open source development. It describes how successful projects operate, the expectations of users and developers, and the culture of free software. The book is released under an open copyright: it is available in bookstores and from the publisher (O’Reilly Media), or you can browse or download it [...]

Valuable parts, which we suggest to read:

• Social Infrastructure
• Communications
• Managing Volunteers

Open source is a value, especially here in Italy, where the small consulting firms have no time/ no hope of developing strong commercial reality.

Open source so can be a way for a cheap investiment.