When I teach web development, I usually start the class by talking about how lucky I was to learn HTML in 1996 when it was still a markup for outlines.  I quickly mastered <b>, <i>,<img src=>, <a href=>, and the basics of ftp and http.  I continued learning new technologies as they became mainstream.  In in 1998, I learned to script with Microsoft's Active Server Pages and to write basic Structured Query Language (SQL) with ADO connections to an MS SQL or Access database.   After mastering variables, if/then, and case statements as well as INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE SQL.  Then I started applying sitewide designs using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).   Then as the average computers went from 32 > 64 > 128 > gigs of RAM, there was more memory to allocate to running increasingly advanced JavaScripts for clientside scripting and I started using that more often.  Along the way I added networking and server administration as well as Photoshop and Flash to my ever growing list of skills.  

I learned HTML using the "View Source" function in Netscape.  There was very little being done on the server side in 1996, so everything was there for me to see, copy, and modify.  Things are much more complicated now.  Students hoping to get a job with the next big Web2.0 start-up are expected to learn in a few semesters what I mastered over several years. 

Peter Zaitsev has blogged that MySQL will no longer be available as a binary download.  You will still be able to download the source code, but compiling installers from the command line is beyond the comfort level of many would be developers.   I've had to compile Apache, PHP, and MySQL at one time or another because I needed a feature in the newest source and it isn't fun.  I'm sure there will always be people like Marc Liyanage and the Friends of Apache compiling installers for the average user, but this is an odd move for MySQL to take.  Many people are speculating that this is an attempt to get more users to pay for the enterprise version of MySQL.  I don't follow MySQL closely, so I'm not sure why they are doing this.

What I do know, is this is going to make things that much more difficult for new developers to get stated.