MariaDB vs. MySQL: A Performance Comparison 112
Nerval's Lobster writes "MariaDB is a fork of the MySQL source code, split off in the wake of concerns over what Oracle would do with MySQL licensing. In addition to its role as a 'drop-in replacement' for MySQL, MariaDB also includes some new features that (some claim) make it better than MySQL. Jeff Cogswell compares MySQL and MariaDB and suggests (in his opinion) that there's 'more than enough reason to ditch MySQL and switch over to MariaDB and stay there.' Why? While he breaks down MariaDB's new features and thinks many of them aren't that fantastic, and while MariaDB's performance isn't that much better than that of MySQL ('MariaDB's performance appears a bit better on multi-core machines, but I strongly suspect that one could tweak MySQL to match'), the questions over Oracle and MySQL licensing give him pause. 'MariaDB shows every indication that it will be around for quite awhile, while you can't really say the same of Oracle's MySQL,' he writes. 'Free-and-open MySQL competes with Oracle's proprietary and extremely competitive tools. That alone is grounds for concern — will Oracle do something to impede MySQL's development?'"
Great summary! (Score:3, Informative)
The only link goes to another Slashdot page! Well done!
Re:Great summary! (Score:5, Informative)
It links to a Slashdot Channel article, which never appeared in the regular part of Slashdot.
Slashdot is not one-dimensional any more. It has grown a first-print arm for new articles.
By your comment, I wager it was your first visit to a Slashdot Channel.
Re:Useless FUD (Score:5, Informative)
The longer you wait, the less chance there is of it still being a 'drop-in replacement'. Both sides are likely to make incompatible changes to the database format, and while that's OK when you're running a 1GB database that you can just dump out and restore, it's a problem when you're dealing with 60TB of data.
Re:Competes? (Score:5, Informative)
I would think the appropriate usage areas for MySQL and Oracle DBs overlap marginally
I am a DBA, and FYI there are multiple editions of Oracle. I'm not sure what use cases you were thinking of, but if you're looking for a free edition there's always Oracle Express Edition [oracle.com]. Free to download, use and distribute, and allows databases up to 11GB. I've worked at companies that run bigger MySQL installations, but I would venture that they are less than 1% of the MySQL user base. The majority of MySQL installations are small ones to back websites, such as Wordpress installations. You could easily replace them with Oracle Express. For other use cases, there's Oracle's NoSQL database, or Oracle's In Memory database (called TimesTen for some obscure reason), and they used to market Oracle Database Lite for mobile apps.
So in summary, Oracle has a bunch of products that would compete with MySQL, and we can't understand why they don't just give MySQL away to Apache or some other foundation. Maybe they have support contracts that actually bring in some money.
Re:Great summary! (Score:0, Informative)
Thanks for the informative explanation, Dice.com employee!
Re:Great summary! (Score:4, Informative)
I wish I could collect a paycheck from all the companies some twinkie AC on /. has accused me of working for.