MySQL is not free - go and look at their download site and read it carefully!!!

Just depends on how you use it, this is why it is included in nearly every linux distribution both free versions and pay version. So for the general user it is free. It would be wise not to be name calling without knowing all the facts.

Use of MySQL agreements:

1. GNU General Public License (GPL) for GPL projects. If your project is 100 percent GPL in its distribution, you can use this license. To fully comply, you must distribute your application, along with the source code. You also can use this license if you don't intend to ever distribute your project internally or externally.

2. Commercial License for commercial applications. An example of the use for this license is when you don't want to distribute the source code for your application. This includes database drivers as well. You can't use the MySQL database drivers with a commercial application unless it's either distributed under the GPL license or you have a Commercial License.

His comments on Open Source are so bizarre that I'm not sure he meant what he said.

Look at parsit.com - apparently the only online English-Thai translation tool. The site is in Thai, only bits and pieces are translated. I managed to register using that2english.com (based on parsit's engine, I believe), but it still got me nowhere - there are instructions how to use the translator, but NO TRANSLATOR itself. Nowhere, even the site map doesn't show it. Apparently it has been abandoned half-way through development.

If that is Thai Open Source in action, I understand the Minister's frustration very well.

It's not an IT problem - they need a working business model, there's nothing wrong with developers.