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There Is No Reason At All To Use MySQL: MariaDB, MySQL Founder Michael Widenius

sfcrazy writes "In this exclusive interview MySQL founder Michael Widenius talks about the reasons of decline of MySQL, what Oracle is doing wrong and how MariaDB is fast replacing it. There are quite some interesting information in this interview. The take out of this interview is '...there is no reason at all to use MySQL 5.5 instead of MariaDB 5.5. The same will be true for the next generation.'" Of course, he has an economic interest in getting people to use MariaDB. Hard to argue that Oracle isn't evil though.

62 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Postgres by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...there is no reason at all to use MySQL 5.5 instead of MariaDB 5.5

    Or Postgres, which is better than MySQL in numerous objective/technical ways and has been for years.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    1. Re:Postgres by Trepidity · · Score: 2

      True, but that's a bigger change. MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL, because it is just a forked/renamed MySQL. To switch to Postgres typically requires some porting.

    2. Re:Postgres by chris.alex.thomas · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm confused, on my debian vps, another debian dedicated server and a further centos server, I could just apt-get the new software.

      since it's 100% compatible and most small websites are not even going to touch the potential problem areas, how would this cost a "lot of money" ?

      I could upgrade my database in the time it takes to download the packages, hardly a lot of money and even less of time.

    3. Re:Postgres by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As far as I know, .org's backend has been postgres. It's conderiably harder to run a GTLD than a website, but according to your criteria, it's uninsteresting.

    4. Re:Postgres by nitehawk214 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I've heard that for years, but is Postgres better than MariaDB?

      MariaDB is a fork of MySQL. So the answer is a resounding yes, in every way, no matter what your target platform is.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    5. Re:Postgres by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Interesting

      But you gotta give the dude credit as he managed to sell a product and keep it at the same time, walking away with the code, the customers AND a big fat check. How he managed to get those fools to buy it without making him sign a non compete I don't know but he pulled it off, hell you might as play the WB "sucker" music when you talk about Oracle and MySQL.

      So lets here it for old Monty, his balls are big and plentiful.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    6. Re:Postgres by AdamWill · · Score: 2

      I'm pretty sure that Monty knows the size of the MySQL install base.

    7. Re:Postgres by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      True, but in regards to the existing customer base, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if MariaDB has better compatibility. If you are migrating to a new version, there might be less trouble with MariaDB.

      OK, logically, riddle me this: how does a replacement possibly have "better compatibility" than the very thing for which it is a "drop-in replacement"? You see, it makes no sense. At most, it could only achieve equal compatibility, otherwise any substantial differences render it other than a drop-in replacement.

      What was your point again?

    8. Re:Postgres by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In many ways, WordPress : CMS :: MySQL : Database.

      Both WordPress and MySQL are great success stories in terms of popularity and to some extent creating an ecosystem as a result. That doesn't make either of them particularly good technically. The way that WordPress was basically hard-coded to use a specific database is not any other database's fault. It's just another symptom of the questionable architectural decisions underlying it.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    9. Re:Postgres by gmuslera · · Score: 2

      Facebook,Twitter and Flickr seem to disagree with you.

    10. Re:Postgres by larry+bagina · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think he's referring to upgrades. What if Oracle releases MySQL 7.0 Enterprise Edition SE and 2013-02-31 is no longer a valid date? Meanwhile, MariaDB starts recognizing SLECT, SELCT, SLCT, INSRT, etc as keywords so shitty PHP programmers don't have to worry about writing valid SQL queries.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  2. Monty is a stooge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Maria builds have not been particularly special, and its hard to take anything he says about MySQL seriously. So much doublespeak. Stop posting his rants as relevant or news. This is little more than an ad for his support/consulting org.

  3. That's funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's also what Postres fans have been saying for years. Maybe they're right about other things?

  4. or sqlite by mattdm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a general rule of thumb, if you need something lightweight, SQLite is the way to go. If you need something more powerful or sophisticated than that, PostgreSQL.

    MySQL and spinoffs all occupy an uncomfortable middle ground. 99% of the small web sites which are built around MySQL don't need it.

    1. Re:or sqlite by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2

      MySQL and spinoffs all occupy an uncomfortable middle ground.

      Indeed. As well as SQLite, there is also a new generation of "NoSQL" databases that might serve some projects better. Any way you look at it, MySQL and MariaDB are stuck in a kind of limbo now. They could survive for years on nothing but inertia, but it's hard to see how they would be a good choice for any new project today.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    2. Re:or sqlite by wmac1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Most people and websites do not agree with you. Ask facebook , wikipedia and thousands of others (if not millions).

      SQLite is not scalable. MySQL is lightweight and scalable.

      PostgreSQL has not been successful in penetrating cheap shared hosting providers. There is no web based tool comparable to phpMyAdmin and there are more reasons why PostgreSQL has not been successful despite its technical advantages.

    3. Re:or sqlite by jamesh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      - Need a key-value storage? Use tdb (or any dbm-like that you can find). - Need a lightweight SQL-using database? Use SQLite. - Need a lightweight and reliable database? Use Firebird. - Need a database for your project(s) that might take off, raking millions of dollars and the one you want to rely as the backbone of your next company? Then .. use PostgreSQL.

      A Mysqlite, Mariadblite, or postresqlite database would be really nice. Something that requires similar installation to sqlite (eg not much at all) and not a lot of tuning for a tiny database but that can scale up to the full thing as required. Most applications i've used have a compatibility layer that means you can choose from sqlite, mysql, or postgresql at installation time, but choosing sqlite initially because it's easy doesn't necessarily mean there is a straightforward migration path when you outgrow it.

    4. Re:or sqlite by CastrTroy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I use MySQL for a lot of personal projects on a shared host. However, I don't have any idea how anyone uses PHPMyAdmin. It gets the job done in a pinch, but it really doesn't work as well as MySQL workbench. You should be able to set up an SSH tunnel so you can use MySQL workbench. I imagine the same could be done for whatever tool is popular for PostgreSQL. Using a web based tool doesn't make any sense in either case.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    5. Re:or sqlite by gagol · · Score: 4, Funny

      The command sucks. I uses a led and a switch connected to my fiber to send commands.

      --
      Tomorrow is another day...
    6. Re:or sqlite by S.O.B. · · Score: 4, Informative

      PostgreSQL has not been successful in penetrating cheap shared hosting providers. There is no web based tool comparable to phpMyAdmin and there are more reasons why PostgreSQL has not been successful despite its technical advantages.

      Ask and ye shall receive:

      http://phppgadmin.sourceforge.net/

      --
      Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
    7. Re:or sqlite by larry+bagina · · Score: 2

      Wikipedia, harbinger of truth, claims NoSQL means a document database, a graph database, or a key/value database (like Berkeley, GDBM, etc). Of course, you can use a key/value store where the value is JSON or xml data, i.e. a document.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    8. Re:or sqlite by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't get it. I've used postgresql for years and I've never bothered tuning it. It's always worked fine out of the box for tiny databases and fairly large ones. I use Ubuntu for most server stuff, so "setting it up" involves "apt-get install postgresql" or whatever. After that I create a user, create a db, and get to work. It's about 4 statements that I have to type in. MySQL is no more work, but I'm not sure why anybody would use it given that postgresql is as easy to set up and does far more with no effort.

    9. Re:or sqlite by AaronLS · · Score: 2

      "99% of the small web sites which are built around MySQL don't need it."

      Likely they are running on a virtual share, and as such as using the cheapest thing available that also supports the web apps they want to use.

      If the web app happened to support SQLite, it would still be a better choice to use the hosting provider's MySQL server since it is already configured for backups and likely runs on a separate piece of hardware from the virtual web server. Additionally they are probably using multiple tools, CMS+blog+wiki+forum or some such, and better to just offload all that to the database server.

      Even if all these apps supported sqlite, the hosting provider still has to hire a programmer to write code that somehow iterates through all the virtual hosts, finds all the apps running SQLite, and perform backups through the backup API. With MySQL, having all the databases in a central location and a nice community of tools that already handles this sort of thing with a bit of configuration is cheaper.

      On the other hand it would be easier on the setup side of the web apps to use SQLite, because no longer will you need to deal with creating the database+permissions+connection strings. Probably the easiest solution is some sort of easily discoverable network service that provides a central backup service, that the host would have for all the SQLite applications to discover and perform backups to.

      Just my opinion, but I wouldn't suggest SQLite as the DB of choice for small websites.

    10. Re:or sqlite by VortexCortex · · Score: 2

      The gui managers all suck. You have to use the command line.

      The command sucks. I uses a led and a switch connected to my fiber to send commands.

      You realize that all of this was part of my plan when I created the initial conditions for this Universe, to populate my database, right?

    11. Re:or sqlite by VortexCortex · · Score: 3, Insightful

      phppgadmin is not comparable to phpmyadmin. It's a poor copy of myadmin.

      Proving once again, the "no true Scotsman" argument can be applied to anything.

    12. Re:or sqlite by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Firebird is trivially embedded with almost zero configuration requirements, yet scales up well and is pretty feature rich. It's a very good option when you think Postgres is overkill.

    13. Re:or sqlite by StandardDeviant · · Score: 4, Informative

      The default configs for postgres are set for a fairly small memory usage profile (*), which is fine if that's what you need (e.g. tiny vm or something that makes it a huge production to raise things like max shm size), but if you have sufficient ram, you can crank a hell of a lot more performance out of the engine by making the configs less conservative. This page is a good start: http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Tuning_Your_PostgreSQL_Server

      Not that it's a priori *wrong* to run with the defaults, it'll still work just fine, but once you start having significant traffic or complicated queries you'll be happier if it more fully uses the system resources available.

      (*) It's been a good while since I last had to take a pg instance from stock and tune it, but I very vaguely recall the default settings were on the order of a eight megabytes of ram usage.

    14. Re:or sqlite by Nemyst · · Score: 2

      Many, many sites are still on low-cost shared hosting, where MySQL is often all there is. I'm not even sure you'll see a transition from MySQL to SkySQL or MariaDB anytime soon in that environment. It took them years to get to PHP5. MySQL is better than no SQL.

    15. Re:or sqlite by jampola · · Score: 2

      This! Hell, using SQLite on most small web sites would be overkill and could quite easily grep text files all day long!

    16. Re:or sqlite by aztracker1 · · Score: 2

      +1 for Firebird.. you can start embedded, and grow into rdbms... it's great for small/mid sized projects... I wish more people knew about it. I once built a distributed system with each node running an embedded copy of FB and a network service to periodically sync new/changed records up/down the nodes.. worked fairly well... that said, if you're on a close/closed network in physical proximity, there are other practicalities of a centralized rdbms.

      --
      Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
    17. Re:or sqlite by rev0lt · · Score: 2

      MySQL is lightweight and scalable.

      Its neither lightweight or scalable, at least when compared to PostgreSQL. MySQL usually runs somewhat fine until you have databases bigger than the memory defined for buffer_pool_size. At that point, you'll start having odd performance issues (presumably due to I/O). Also, for small databases, it seems (by my empirical experience - never benchmarked this specifically) the sweet spot for buffer_pool_size is about twice the total size of the database in disk. PostgreSQL works quite well even with 256Mb of memory. Regarding scalability, well, this is a broad subject. At horizontal level, MySQL replication has a ton of issues and oddities (it is getting way better, but still there is a lot of work to be done). At a vertical level, well, if you start using it as a RDMS, you'll quickly find MySQL shortcomings: poor query planner, poor performance in complex join queries, shitty GIS support, no recursive transactions, _no_ "proper" stored procedure support (stored procedures are handled as macros and expanded inline in the queries). MySQL is great for some workloads, but not as a general RDBMS.

    18. Re: or sqlite by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey, that's not a REAL no true Scotsman fallacy...

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  5. Sign of OSS maturity by Gothmolly · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most MySQL/MariaDB users wont care at all about this, because there are millions of them who are not Slashdot or Amazon or Facebook - this DB silently powers millions of Internet connected things, and it's just a given that it works, performs, has fit-for-purpose stability. It's a sign of how far OSS has come when people have the luxury of quibbling over WHICH free, capable DB they want to base their business model on.

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:Sign of OSS maturity by girlintraining · · Score: 2

      It's a sign of how far OSS has come when people have the luxury of quibbling over WHICH free, capable DB they want to base their business model on.

      I'm not aware of any reliable numbers on how many copies of those databases are actually in use. Unfortunately, the only numbers that there's any confidence in is based on sales figures, which, given that open source doesn't sell software licenses at anything but, uhh, $0, isn't representational. Oh I know, I'm going to burn in the eternal fires of hell for saying open source isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, but you did use the phrase "business model."

      If we're talking about a database that businesses depend on, then we need to start with the first question a manager's going to ask about: How much support can I get if this thing blows up? And the followup: How does the labor pool look? For example, it's not hard to find people with, say, Cisco hardware experience on their resume. But what about Acme Routers Inc.?

      I'm not saying it isn't nice to have choices; nor am I saying that these aren't mature products that can fill the needs for many businesses. I'm just saying, from a management (not geek) perspective... what closes "the sale" is support and labor availability.

      Remember: These people are willing to pay tens of thousands for a single server license. They're not doing that for shits and giggles. So if we want open source to spread, we need to do more than thump our bibles and quote the GPL before our morning bread... We need to make a business case. And no, a reply on slashdot with a link to someone's blog or a glowing personal review doesn't count.

      Pretend I'm the CTO of a Fortune 500 company, and make your case for switching from, say, Oracle, to MariaDB. Back it up with case studies from other Fortune 500 businesses that have made the switch, and the costs and problems they encountered doing so. And I want to know about support -- if I want it, how long will it take to shove your engineers on a plane and get them to my headquarters to fix a snafu?

      --
      #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    2. Re:Sign of OSS maturity by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2

      I read your posts for awhile.

      Your enterprise is so backwards and has a fear of anything new. You praised IE 6 a few years ago because you didn't liek the new gui's of Firefox and IE 8 and Windows 7 at your place is still a slow process with people crying and kicking.

      Have you considered working in a more forward thinking environment where you are not a cost, and people are so scared of change? I work in such an environment now and since I am a contractor already have something else lined up.

  6. Re:Uh, what? by fnj · · Score: 2

    What the heck? That's EXACTLY what OP said. Re-read the sentence you quoted.

  7. Until you do support/enterprise by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you want the "free" version, there isn't a significant difference for 95% of users, agreed. However, MariaDB support is miles better and cheaper than Oracle's "Enterprise MySQL" support is. Also, calling Monty names is cheap and rather unfounded.

    --
    I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
  8. Free migration then? by dutchwhizzman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe Postgres is a better DB in a theoretical way. It could be that in a brand new design for an application, it will be better in practice as well. However, if you run existing code or use an "off the shelf" open source application, chances are, it will be tested and developed on MySQL/MariaDB and not on Postgres. Until the choice is just as easy to make as the choice for either MySQL or MariaDB, I doubt it's "better" for 90+% of all MariaDB/MySQL users. Those users have a choice for either something that works, or something that will need a lot of porting and testing done. It may seem small and insignificant to Postgres experts to do that, but to those 90+%, it ishttp://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/05/05/2050220/there-is-no-reason-at-all-to-use-mysql-mariadb-mysql-founder-michael-widenius?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed# most likely far beyond their capabilities, probably cost prohibitive and in a lot of cases just not an option at all.

    --
    I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
    1. Re:Free migration then? by rnturn · · Score: 3, Informative

      ``However, if you run existing code or use an "off the shelf" open source application, chances are, it will be tested and developed on MySQL/MariaDB and not on Postgres.''

      That was my experience back when I was looking for web site software a few years ago. It's not so much that the "off the shelf" application hasn't been tested against PostgreSQL but it's almost certain that the developers only considered MySQL, taken advantage of non-standard SQL statements that are available in MySQL, and locked users into using only that database. I downloaded untold numbers of web site packages and found that most of them had used things like MySQL's "REPLACE" statement which meant they wouldn't be useful in my existing PostgreSQL environment without significant reworking. Standards, shmandards.

      Ideally, it'd be nice if more developers would write their application to use some of the database abstraction layers that are out there (PEAR, ADOdb, etc.). At least then users would be able to merely use the database they may already have installed.

      --
      CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
  9. Re:Praise the lord by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've found JudasDB to be very reliable so far.

  10. There Is No Reason At All To Use MySQL.. by JoeCommodore · · Score: 4, Informative

    My reason is because there is no compelling reason right now for me to switch. Once it is in my next Ubuntu upgrade or my ISP switches to it then I'll do so as well.

    --
    "Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
    1. Re:There Is No Reason At All To Use MySQL.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm just in the process replacing our server and decided to give maria a try. Everything worked nicely, except when using SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS, ORDER BY is ignored in a subquery.

  11. Re:First by wmac1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Michael Widenius has benefited from gathering millions of developers around his product and letting them down.

    He cannot sell source code of MariaDB this time, but he still can sell the brand name and the community which has trusted him again to earn another fortune. Fool me once, full me twice...

  12. There was never a rrason to use it by siddesu · · Score: 2

    Especially since sqlite came about. For no-setup, small-size databases, you use that. For more features, if you need em, there's Postgress.

  13. Postgres has a poor toolset by mveloso · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The main reason to stay away from PostgreSQL is its toolset. Specifically, it's almost impossible to find a tool that allows you to analyze and tune it's performance. I say 'almost' because there may be one out there that I haven't found...but I've looked on and off for years, with no results.

    For mysql there's lots of tools, like jetprofiler. For oracle you can pay. For SQLite, well, who cares. For psql, it's (as one website put it) a black art. Do you really want that as your back end?

    1. Re:Postgres has a poor toolset by TrollstonButterbeans · · Score: 2

      Thanks for that information. I have always wondered why PostgreSQL adoption isn't as high as MySQL.

      --
      Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
    2. Re:Postgres has a poor toolset by ducomputergeek · · Score: 4, Informative

      Have you not looked at the enterprise DB folks? A few years ago I was working on a project that started out using MySQL because MySQL was everywhere and initially it was for a single store. Then that became 50 and then 200 and we ran into some interesting problems with MySQL. Long story short, we ported the backend to PostgreSQL in a couple weeks and then ran for another three years processing tens of thousands of transactions a day without further hiccups from the database before we sold the company. The plan originally was to use PostgreSQL and then migrate to DB2 at some point once the revenue was coming in. Even when we reach that point PostgreSQL was handling everything we threw at it and we did hire Enterprise DB to come in and tune the database set up since we didn't have and couldn't afford to hire a DBA full-time at that point. IIRC they had a pretty decent toolset that we used there after, but it wasn't free as in beer or speech.

      --
      "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
    3. Re:Postgres has a poor toolset by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm calling liar. No one on purpose MOVES to db2

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    4. Re:Postgres has a poor toolset by greg1104 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The performance analysis tools for PostgreSQL are still rough, but they're coming out stronger now than ever before. The old slow query profiling approach is based on database log files, and the pgbadger tool has gotten a lot of improvements in the last year to take the lead in that area. Some web app providers have added PostgreSQL data collection and visualization to the products recently, Datadog is a good example, they even run Postgres internally.

      Last year's PostgreSQL 9.2 added a built-in query profiling feature via an improved pg_stat_statements module. That makes it relatively easy to see what queries are taking up time on the server, in a way that matches similar statements based on underlying their query plan. I wrote a sort of call to arms to suggest how the next generation of analysis tools can leverage that in Beyond Query Logging.

      You are correct that no one has really grabbed ahold of this area and put together a really easy to use tool set around it. All of the hard to construct pieces needed are in place now, and my list of goals for this year's 9.3 development includes pushing the tuning methodology outlined in my High Performance PostgreSQL 9.0 book into some reference tool implementations. The idea that this is a "black art" is coming from consultants who want you to be intimidated. People who want to understand how things work can read my book, and then wander out to confidently build terabyte size databases. I talk with new people who have done just that every week now.

  14. Re:Uh, what? by BitZtream · · Score: 3, Informative

    and being purely selfish with ZFS is just nauseating anymore.

    Uhm, your saying that its Oracles fault Sun and many other people dont' like the viral nature of GPL and intentionally licensed the software in such a way that prevents your silly fanboy license from being able to leech it? You're saying that its okay for you to have software your way ... but not for anyone else to be free to have it their own way.

    You're just another one of the freeloaders. Any talk about liberty is just bullshit your spewing to hide the truth.

    My OS has been using ZFS for years without any problems, stop your whining, you got what you intended out of your license. GPL is incompatible with ZFS, not the other way around. Get a clue

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
  15. Yada Yada Yada.. More of the same drivel. by FlyingGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    98% of "web Programmers" wouldn't know a good database if it dragged them out of the parents basement and gave them a blow job.

    I would not recommend using Oracle to run a simple web site. It is complete over kill. I would not recommend using MySQL / Maria to run the VISA processing center either.

    99.9% of application builders do not even know the value of a good, much less great, DB engine and that is proven out time and time again when you look at their DB schema and all you see are tables. They all insist on doing EVERYTHING on the front end and never get , even when advised about, the amount of power that DB's like Oracle, PostGres, MS-SQL, DB2 and even MySQL have these days. One well written Stored Procedure ( Oracle Speak ). Package ( Oracle Speak ), function ( PostGres Speak ) or Procedure ( MySQL/ MS-SQL Speak ) can eliminate 1000's of lines of java, python, ruby, php ( pick your language ) front end code, and perform the function 1000x faster and more reliably.

    Every tool has its use. When you need massive scaleibility, up time in the 5 9's category and support RIGHT FUCKING NOW WITH AN ACTUAL ENGINEER when you dial the toll free number 24/7/365 you get the big dogs like Oracle,MS-SQL or DB2. If those factors are less important then you have other choices like Postgres ( they REALLY need to fix the TXID issue ) which is very powerful but lacks the kind of SLA's that you can get with Oracle / Microsoft. If just getting feedback from the support community is fine the MySQL / Maria are fine choices.

    I design VERY large databases that push DB's to their limits. Google had to design their own because nothing off the shelf or even from the FOOS community could handle their requirements but it takes a small army to deal with it and most companies don't have the resources or don't want to have that many people on their payroll.

    The bottom line is use the DB that fits your requirements, fits your budget and has the support organization around it so when you have a problem your requirements are met, and it really does not matter who you get it from. Don't be religious about it. ALL of these companies are trying to build the best product to serve their market and that is the bottom line.

    Michael Widenius is nothing but a little bitch. He sold his DB to sun for how much again? 1 BILLION dollars I think it was. Now shut the fuck up, go sit on your riches and do MariaDB if you want but stop bitching about what happened to MySQL because he YOU are the idiot who cashed in and sold out.

    --
    Hey KID! Yeah you, get the fuck off my lawn!
  16. hasn't been any reason to use MySQL for 1 decade by smash · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Postgresql is more feature complete, just as fast, and properly free software.

    --
    I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
  17. Speaking of economic interest... by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oracle has a HUGE economic interest in making sure MySQL sucks bad enough that customers buy Oracle databases instead.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  18. Re:Structured Quota Language by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2

    OK, that's a fair point, though I'm not sure hosting providers are falling over themselves to offer MariaDB either if my own experience is at all representative. In that market, it's more about popularity and the established brand than anything else, and if you want anything other than a canned MySQL/WP/etc. set-up then you basically need to move up a tier and get yourself a shell account on a VPS or something.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  19. Re:Yada Yada Yada.. More of the same drivel. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Big advice to anyone who ever gets the "bright" idea of trying to port a substantial application from MySQL to Oracle: don't. And if your boss tells you that you have to, start looking for a new job, because it's a fool's errand almost guaranteed to fail. Not even *Oracle* would ever recommend porting an app from MySQL to Oracle. The problem is that MySQL does well in many scenarios as long as you humor its quirks, but those quirks you've humored will come back and destroy your performance, or make it outright impossible to port the application to a database like Oracle at some later point in time. The problem is that MySQL has certain rules and constraints that you CAN work around to get acceptable performance, but those work-arounds are either frowned upon, or point-blank prohibited, by databases like Oracle. Rewriting your query to get good performance out of MySQL will almost certainly result in the same query causing Oracle to either reject it, fall flat on its face, ditch its indices, and/or do full table scans to satisfy you.

  20. Re:First by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fool me once, full me twice...

    ...empty me the third time?

  21. Re:First by prionic6 · · Score: 3, Funny

    You meant to say:

    fool me once, shame on
    shame on you.
    Fool me
    you can't get fooled again

  22. Re:Yada Yada Yada.. More of the same drivel. by InsectOverlord · · Score: 2
    That, and if you take a lot of business logic to DB level you REALLY have to know what you're doing, with triggers, constraints and other stuff creating race conditions and various other side effects and making the system harder to debug.

    Not that you shouldn't use stored procs, etc but you shouldn't become obsessed over it either.

  23. Re:Amazon RDS by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 2

    It's not revelent until the AMAZON RDS adopts MariaDB over MySQL 5.5!

    Isn't most of the point of RDS that you don't really have to care what's under the hood?

    --
    They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
  24. Re:Uh, what? by Captain_Chaos · · Score: 2

    Here, these fell out of your post: ' e ' ' ' e. My pleasure.

  25. Re:Yada Yada Yada.. More of the same drivel. by Rich0 · · Score: 2

    Not that you shouldn't use stored procs, etc but you shouldn't become obsessed over it either.

    THIS.

    I'd go a step further and say simply never use stored procs. They really cement you into exactly one platform. If you write your code to be DB-agnostic then you're going to have a LOT more flexibility down the road. Oh, and that isn't just flexibility to change DB Vendors - even Oracle has been known to deprecate some of their stuff and if you relied on them that means a lot of rework. If you rely on ANSI SQL you can pretty-much guarantee that it will still work (if you use it right - like not assuming that an unordered query returns results in some particular order).

    Some programmers just don't grok SQL either. I can't tell you how many queries I've seen that are implemented with either a wall of SQL, or even a stored procedure, that could be expressed as maybe 10 lines of well-indented SQL written properly. I've seen subqueries nested 10 levels deep that implement simple inner joins - they're worse than trying to read compiler output (especially when nobody bothers to format them). Hint, if your query contains the expression "WHERE 1" a dozen times you're probably doing something wrong.

  26. Re:Yada Yada Yada.. More of the same drivel. by snadrus · · Score: 2

    I think a great advantage of SQLite is no stored procedures.
    I've seen stored procedures munge backup/restore operations and have all kinds of unintended consequences when a developer is over-aggressive with them.
    Then they're difficult to scale versus up-scaling front-ends that run the logic.

    As an ex-DB-Admin for ~100 developers, my rule was: no stored procedures.

    --
    Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.