Hi everybody, as some of you might know, we have two MySQL implementations in openSUSE: * mysql-community-server - MySQL Community Server as provided by Oracle * mariadb - MariaDB from Monty Program We were offering both for a long time, letting users choose and we are still doing that and I don't see that changing in a near future. But one of these variants has to be default and I sent a request to change this default to MariaDB for openSUSE 12.3. What does it mean? ================== Actually, not much. As written on MariaDB web page[1], MariaDB is a binary drop in replacement for MySQL. So from almost all points of view it behaves completely the same. If you will switch, you probably wouldn't even notice. And as we are still providing Oracles MySQL (don't worry, that one will NOT go away, I know some of you really need it), you can decide to stick with it. Switching on server part can be done easily[2], so you can switch there and back as much as you want. So what will actually change? We do provide only one devel package, so everything will be compiled against MariaDB and embedded library will be using MariaDB. But as protocol is still the same, all programs will be able to talk to both MySQL and MariaDB no matter against what they were compiled. And if you wouldn't choose and wouldn't care, you'll end up with MariaDB. If you are using Oracles MySQL and you will update to 12.3, you'll still be using Oracles MySQL after the update. So overall, even though there is a change, you shouldn't notice much difference ;-) Why to switch? ============== MariaDB is getting a lot of attention[3] and frankly I'm using it since 11.4 on my own server so it is even more tested by me. They periodically merge with Oracles MySQL and add some of their own or Perconas or somebody else goodies[4] on top of that. Originally I was sticking to Oracles MySQL as a default to keep it conservative and stable, but over the years MariaDB proved to be stable and lately they were even faster in fixing some security issues (although they might be the guys who found them, so comparison might not be fair). I'm not saying that I'm unhappy with Oracles MySQL, I know that there is plenty of people doing great job at Oracle pushing MySQL forward, but I believe that new default will bring some more goodies to our users without any unpleasant side-effects. And as we believe in choice, you can still choose Oracles MySQL over MariaDB. It's up to you. And as I said before, what is default MySQL actually doesn't mean much in openSUSE ;-) [1] https://kb.askmonty.org/en/mariadb-versus-mysql-compatibility/ [2] http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Switching_between_MySQL_variants [3] http://www.zdnet.com/wikipedia-moving-from-mysql-to-mariadb-7000008912/ [4] https://kb.askmonty.org/en/mariadb-versus-mysql-features/ -- Michal HRUSECKY SUSE LINUX, s.r.o openSUSE Team Lihovarska 1060/12 PGP 0xFED656F6 19000 Praha 9 mhrusecky[at]suse.cz Czech Republic http://michal.hrusecky.net http://www.suse.cz -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-factory+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse-factory+owner@opensuse.org