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

[Stewart Smith]

On Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:55:58 +0200, Walter Heck <walterheck at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it would be fair to take into account both the things Colin
> and Stewart have said as many of them are correct, but their words
> should also be taken with a grain of salt as they work for the
> companies that would benefit heavily from having 'their' fork be the
> replacement of mysql. That's not to accuse them of anything, just to
> keep in mind when making a decision. The fork that 'wins' this
> decision might well be the more succesful one in the long run simply
> because of being the default mysql version in two of the most widely
> used linux distributions.

Just to be clear: I'm not aiming for Percona Server to become
upstream. The benefit of Percona Server is in having extra performance
and features to better help you diagnose what's going on inside your
server. We intentionally closely track Oracle MySQL releases and don't
deviate hugely.

> Percona server's direction is heavily influenced by the commercial
> value for Percona. They implement new features when customers pay for
> them, and their development seems to be driven by that largely. The
> community benefits from the 'fallout' of those features being released
> as open source. The largest benefit is a release cycle that seems a
> bit more regular then mariadb's.

We do put customer priorities first although we do also do development
for the general good of the wider community - but it's just commercial
sense to prioritise work for paying customers (we like making enough
money to hire new people and pay them well). It's not just fallout
though, it is a pretty core belief of those of us who work here that
free software is the best way to develop software and that every bit of
software we ship is licensed under a free software license.


-- 
Stewart Smith