About MySQL & MariaDB

MySQL® Server is not a product that is sold directly: it is “free” (as in freedom) under the GPL v2 license.

Open Query and other companies offer auxiliary products and services, including support and training.

MySQL & Monty

monty-my-sw-runs-your-company

Shown on the side is a picture of Monty, author of MySQL and co-founder of the original company MySQL AB (which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008).

Monty left Sun in 2009 to start Monty Program Ab and develop the MariaDB branch of MySQL, and over time hired a significant number of experienced MySQL core developers (including most of the optimiser experts: Igor, Timour, Sergey).

In 2014, Monty Program merged with SkySQL Ab, a MariaDB services company, to form the MariaDB Corporation.

Open Source

The text on Monty’s shirt “my free software runs your company” is indicative of the Open Source landscape in many companies, although some are not yet aware of it…

In early 2010 Oracle completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, and that means that the MySQL trademark and other intellectual property is now owned by Oracle. A quirky situation, for sure, and we at Open Query are well aware that many of our clients are apprehensive (if not downright hostile) to having any dealings with Oracle. Since MySQL is GPL licensed, its case is rather unique, and the existing codebase cannot disappear.

But while MySQL group at Oracle has put good development effort into MySQL and has indeed delivered interesting features over the last few years, we felt it unwise to rely solely on that source and other events since have validated that.

MariaDB & MariaDB Foundation

mariadb-foundation

MariaDB started as a branch of MySQL 5.1 and beyond, maintained by Monty Widenius, Monty Program Ab (now merged with SkySQL Ab / MariaDB Corporation) and the community. Many of the highly experienced core developers work at Monty Program, and they have been very busy completing bugfixes and tasks that had often been lingering for years. Awesome examples of this are their fixing of the subquery performance in MariaDB 5.3, and integration of the Galera synchronous replication technology in MariaDB 5.5, but also many new features in MariaDB 10.x.

Yes it’s a fork (in case you’re wondering about the semantics), but it currently still feeds in selected changes from upstream (Oracle). With the available expertise, that feed can be cut if necessary. MariaDB focuses on getting useful features to production level, so you can actually use them: where necessary, features are (back)ported. MariaDB has all the right credentials, and has been delivering the fast bugfixing and adoption of community contributions we need.

For instance, Open Query’s GRAPH Engine is available in MariaDB 5.2 and above. Arjen is also a MariaDB Captain.

Open Query’s earlier effort for the enhanced MySQL 5.0 OurDelta packages lives on in MariaDB: Arjen and Monty have worked together to make sure the additional 5.0 features were ported to 5.1 and beyond, and Open Query Pty Ltd has contributed the OurDelta build scripts to Monty Program so that MariaDB has proper Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat and CentOS packages.

Community

opensqlcamp2008-arjen-montyFrom old colleagues, Monty and Arjen continue to be active in the community – this includes having open development and bug processes and mailing lists, assistence in IRC channels, presence at conferences and user group meetings, blog posts, and so on. It’s not about “marketing leverage”, its objective is not lead generation. Community is what we’re part of, and thus part of who we are.

The picture on the right is of Monty together with Arjen, taken at an OpenSQLCamp event in Charlottesville, VA. Yes, they are wearing the same classic MySQL “What’s Your Uptime?” t-shirt. Coincidence, really! Arjen says he was wearing his in reference to himself rather than MySQL that day, considering the long tiring journey from Brisbane to that event.

IRC and Knowledge Base

If you use IRC, the #mariadb and #mysql channels on Freenode can be an excellent free resource for asking questions while you’re working on something. Many developers and engineers “hang out” there.

Don’t expect instant answers, but the crowd is generally helpful. They will, like Open Query does too, try to teach best practises and resolve underlying problems, and not only answer the narrow direct question. Just remember, you can spend time to save money, or spend a bit of money to save time. That’s freedom.

The MariaDB Knowledge Base is also an excellent resource. It is the MariaDB reference manual, and more.

Download

Download MariaDB (packages or via repository) from https://downloads.mariadb.org/