[debian-mysql] [Maria-discuss] MySQL's future in Debian and Ubuntu

Nicholas Bamber nicholas at periapt.co.uk
Thu Feb 16 09:03:50 UTC 2012


I have been following this thead with interest and as it happens I have
been seeking to get more involved in Debian mysql. I emailed Norbert
Tretkowski though I did not get a reply. However I am not seeing my view
represented here.

First of all it may well be that MariaDB is better and has a more secure
future in the open source world than MySQL, and that therefore it should
be available in Debian.

But there are a number of reasons why I think MySQL should not be dropped.

1.) MySQL has brand recognition.

2.) Dropping MySQL would create fear and confusion in users of Debian
and users of downstream distributions.

3.) MariaDB will from time to time fall behind MySQL.

4.) MySQL will continue to be around for the forseeable future and its
core at least will be available on terms that technically are
packageable for Debian.

Furthermore I suggest that the cost and effort of one team maintaining
MySQL and MariaDB is a lot less than two separate teams maintaining both
since MariaDB could often be mined as a source of patches.

On 16/02/12 07:40, Henrik Ingo wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 9:33 AM, Bjoern Boschman <bjoern at boschman.de> wrote:
>> On 16.02.2012 00:57, Henrik Ingo wrote:
>>> Percona Server is like MariaDB in that both of them are compatible
>>> with MySQL and you could do a plug-and-play replacement. Percona
>>> Server is much closer to MySQL (which many think is great), shall
>>> I say more focused. MariaDB has more deviation in the code base and
>>> also adds more stuff like additional storage engines (which many
>>> think is great, especially when you want to play with new
>>> features).
>>
>> The additional storage engine also applies to percona :-)
> 
> 
> Ok, fair point, but MariaDB really goes out of its way to have lots of
> them: PBXT, OQGraph engine, Sphinx, Aria...  You won't find these
> (unless you contract Percona to provide them for you) in Percona
> Server. These are not that commonly used but more niche. But they are
> the reason I commonly label MariaDB as "has more stuff".
> 
> 
> henrik
> 


-- 
Nicholas Bamber | http://www.periapt.co.uk/
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