/me nods...

To my way of thinking, there’s one thing that has blown BerkeleyDB completely out of the water, and that one thing is:   SQLite.   (Note that I am not saying that it is a drop-in replacement because very obviously it is not.)

First of all, there are no legal encumbrances:   SQLite is public domain.   Secondly, it is a complete SQL implementation ... not merely an ISAM-file ... which nevertheless lives in a single operating-system file with no server.   And, provided that you are aware of SQLite’s behavior with regard to verifying every write that does not occur within a transaction (therefore: “always use transactions”), it is fast.

I find that there is great business value in being able to query something, using a tool that I did not write.   I am not criticizing a venerable and rugged tool for not being more than it is, but merely pointing out that there exists a legal-free tool that is “more than it [BerkeleyDB] is,” and that I have been very satisfied with it [SQLite].   I intend this response as an aside:   I’m not offering any opinion at all about the business/legal case issues in the main thread because INAL™ and happy so to be.