The last year of DuckDB enhancements feel like the shift from in-process execution engine (which it is phenomenal at) to an engine that can serve as the foundation of a cloud data warehouse. I know the founders were reticent about not wanting to build that, but I have a feeling it is in the works.
Ryan Boyd, co-founder at MotherDuck here. Yep, we've worked closely with the team, but are separate companies! We're focused on cloud data warehousing and customer-facing analytics. Let me know if you have any other questions!
Yeah, that was one of the sources of my confusion, too.
Some of the recent DuckDB features and extensions would certainly seem to undercut premium features MotherDuck has layered over DuckDB. Though, on the flip side, since there is a relationship between the orgs it does seem like MotherDuck features are a good way for the DuckDB team to field test (future) features without committing to building extensions or adding them to the database itself (e.g. DuckLake and Quack).
It is all a bit curious, though, and makes you wonder what's in store for the future. The DuckDB team has hinted at some "big things" coming soon which I don't think are covered in these release notes.
