Oracle Releases MySQL 5.5

darthcamaro writes "Two years after Sun released MySQL 5.1, Oracle has picked up the ball with the official release of MySQL 5.5. New features include semi-synchronous replication, InnoDB by default and new SIGNAL/RESIGNAL support for exception handling. Above all, Oracle stressed that they are committed to further MySQL open source development and that they see it as a complementary technology to their proprietary Oracle database."

Comments

You have nothing to fear.

[tautog]

You can trust us. Honest.

Re:You have nothing to fear.

[tepples]

Postgres.

Any other questions you have?

Here's one: how to adapt LAMP applications that depend on behaviors of MySQL.

Re:You have nothing to fear.

[Anonymous Coward]

While I don't think Oracle views Postgres as threat in any definition of the term, they could hamper OS db field very easily, actually:

1. Over two or three years, Oracle can merge mysql into their Express edition. That'll basically require adding a mysql API onto it. They can probably do that over a few weeks, but why hurry?

When most users can download a compatible binary from Oracle, who'll care about the genuine "mysql", really? Especially given that mysql technologies are controlled by the same Oracle.

2. Over the same period, they can gradually kill the mysql trademark in favor of OracleSomething. Puff, mysql is gone.

3. You'll end up with a product that is mysql compatible, has Oracle features, and is usable "for free". By virtue of being an Oracle, it will compete well against Pg as well. Unlike Pg, it will also provide smooth migration path towards the slaughterhouse with all bells and whistles.

That may move some less ideological Pg users away, hurting Pg's acceptance and development long term.

So, the db landscape is left without mysql, and weakened Pg.

Not a compleat "kill", but close.

Re:You have nothing to fear.

[jimicus]

What is the direct counterpart of Access that uses MySQL?

You've had a number of replies so far. AFAICT, most have missed the point so thoroughly that they can't possibly have seen Access used in a business. So I'm going to explain Access.

Yes, Access gives you a database engine (and not a particularly good one at that). The other thing it gives you is a GUI-driven desktop application which makes it an absolute doddle to design tables, queries, forms and reports without having to write a single line of code.

The end result is frequently badly designed, with little or no attention paid to normalisation or data integrity, but it broadly works.

Now, you might very well turn around and say "Tough. You'll just have to get used to writing code." - you're talking to the wrong people. The people who are using Access in businesses are the middle managers who have never in their life written code and aren't about to start now. So many businesses pushed Access to the desktop years ago when they bought Office, and have since discovered that the reason the IT department hasn't heard from lots of parts of the business is because some manager decided that rather than to-and-fro with the IT department (which would cost a lot of money out of his budget - larger businesses just love shuffling money between departments), he'd cobble together a little application in Access to run his department. It's invariably a mess, but it's a mess that's so ingrained it isn't going anywhere.

Anyhow, these guys have no idea what SQL is and are only vaguely aware that a database stores everything in tables. You can no more ask them to do everything in PHP from now on than you can ask them to lick their own testicles.

Re:From the article....

[nxtw]

When's the last time you lost data with mysql that was directly attributable to the database, and not to a messed-up query or a hardware or network problem?

On 0000-00-00 00:00:00, of course.

Windows kernel-mode code signing

[tepples]

VirtualBox? I'm afraid to even think about it... I love VirtualBox.

At ever step of the way it still be open source. If you don't like what they're doing and want to change it, make a fork.

Some virtualization features, such as USB forwarding, require kernel-mode device drivers. On 64-bit Windows Vista and 64-bit Windows 7 operating systems, all kernel-mode device drivers must be digitally signed with a timestamp from a commmercial certificate authority recognized by Microsoft. If you add your own self-signed CA, you get the always-on-top notice "Test Mode" in all four corners of the screen. Unless you are forking on behalf of an established organization that already has a kernel-mode code signing certificate, the advantage of the official version over your fork is that the end user doesn't have to throw his computer into "Test Mode". The only way out that I can see is to run GNU/Linux on the bare hardware, and that brings hardware compatibility issues that I don't feel like bringing up yet again.

Re:From the article....

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, I've written multithreaded servers that have run for months without leaking as well. That's got fuck-all to do with data integrity as a general concept, but I was hoping we could jerk each other off for a little while since you seem to be in a self-congratulatory mood.