Would PHP have become popular if MySQL had maintained a strict license? I wasn't a web developer at the time and am genuinely curious what the database landscape was like back then.
Postgre would probably been used instead. The demand for an easy to use Web scripting language existed, php fit the bill that's what pushed mysql to become popular.
I kind of doubt it. The Windows port of PostgreSQL was kind of lacking for a long time (8.0, released in 2010, brought the first native Windows server version) and a large group of PHP developers were Windows developers.
I don't remember Postgres having much traction around 2000 or before.
Since there was "always" MySQL available, Postgres wasn't in need of development, for most people MySQL was sufficient.
If MySQL had been less open, Postgres might have gotten momentum years earlier to fill that gap on the low web-end.
I can imagine Postgres popularity in recent years is because people are replacing Oracle databases with Postgres, they are looking for a way out of that.
Or even more, newer companies don't even look at starting with Oracle, but start on Postgres right away.
MySQL replaced mSQL [miniSQL]. A bare minimum SQL server that didn't even have table joins. But was used with PHP on the web regardless. Because the alternate was to code your own text file database. MySQL was so much better over it all.
Postgress did exist at that time. Was called Postgress95. I compiled and ran it on a linux machine. And it crashed as soon as I tried to connect from a remote host.
PHP was supporting MySQL way before MySQL was Open Source.
MySQL was released in 1995 under a liberal but commercial license (You should pay if you make money with MySQL) but was changed to GPL in 2000 "when we had got enough money in the bank to be able afford the switch".
