A rebel MySQL group has launched an open source foundation for the project with a notable absence in its ranks: MySQL owner Oracle.

Oracle acquired the IP of the open source management system commonly ranked as the second most popular enterprise database along with Sun Microsystems in 2010. However, concerns over its handling of the project has led to the creation of a new guiding force. 

The biggest name on the new foundation’s board is Alibaba, the Chinese giant that maintains its own AliSQL fork.

Alibaba's cloud RDS team manager, Zongzhi Chen, told The Stack he had joined the new foundation in a personal capacity.

Vadim Tkachenko, co-founder of enterprise database company Percona, is the foundation's initial president. Percona's Peter Zaitsev is also on the board alongside Tomas Ulin of VillageSQL, the AI-optimised MySQL variant.

Those two companies have been prominent in a group that has expressed unhappiness with Oracle's handling of MySQL lately.

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