That is a big, legitimate problem. I never really understood licensing on a per-processor basis. It’s not like software wears out faster when you use it harder, like a car on lease does. It’s more like a store charging me $10 for a telephone because I live alone but charging a 4-family household $30 for the same phone because they might use it more.

Hopefully enough people will complain to get the software makers to abandon per-processor licensing. After all, within a couple of years it won’t be possible to buy what used to be a single-processor system. If they need more money, then they need to either raise their prices or figure out how to expand their market. Either that, or, as you say, MySQL and company are going to see their usage jump considerably.