Lessons Learned from a $1 Billion Open Source Project

What would one of the Co-founders of the Popular open source database MySQL have done differently?

On the MySQL/Sun Website MySQL co-founder, David Axmark, discusses the history of MySQL and his experience creating an immensely popular piece of open source software, MySQL. Anyone contemplating going into the open source software business could surely learn something from the history of MySQL. Sun Microsystems certainly thought the open source database was a valuable asset when Sun decided to buy MySQL for $1 billion. The self described "worlds largest enterprise software company" Oracle may see something interesting in MySQL as well judging by its purchase of Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion.

MySQL co-founder, David Axmark's words of wisdom?

Question:
Looking back, what would you have done differently? What are the lessons learned? How do the ideas from 1995 stack up today?

David Axmark:
Believe it or not, I wouldn't have done much differently. Our values and priorities put the emphasis on improvements crucial for user base growth and community building. By coincidence or perhaps sheer luck when it comes to timing, MySQL grew more than we had ever imagined. However, we should have probably spent a bit more time on getting at least minimal legal assistance early on. Some basic legal groundwork in the beginning would have helped us to save lots of time and money later on several occasions(emphasis added).