[johannes1234321]

While that change from LGPL to GPL affected only the client library (server always was GPL(+commercial)) and the MySQL company relatively quickly reacted with a FOSS exception to the GPL and by providing a reimplementation of the client library under PHP license (mysqlnd) to serve that market.

(I joined MySQL shortly after that mess, before the Sun acquisition)

[p_l]

Random hosting providers that were major place for having your baby steps on LAMP stack didn't necessarily grok licensing much

[johannes1234321]

They also didn't like updating software - to likely that update to PHP or MySQL or something broke some bad script by a customer, who'd complain to the host.