MariaDB is a replacement of MySQL
Control! Control! Control! That's what Oracle likes to do. I
don't know any open source believer who is very fond of Oracle.
In October this year, Oracle
made a move to kill Open Source MySQL. Even though Oracle partially claimed
that is will keep its promise to keep MySQL open source but who knows. Do you
trust their words? I don't.
On January 27, 2010 Sun Microsystems, the company behind
Java and MySQL, was
acquired by Oracle and Oracle promised to keep MySQL open source. However, some
open source community leaders including the MySQL founders think Oracle
is making MySQL less open.
To continue with the open source practice, the founders of
MySQL Michael Widenius, David Axmark, and Allan Larsson last year announced a
new database, MariaDB that is an enhanced, drop-in replacement of MySQL.
If you do not like Oracle or let's just say, if you do not
trust Oracle, MariaDB is the way to go. It is very similar to MySQL and there
is not much learning curve. If you are an existing MySQL developer or DBA, you
will find yourself home with MariaDB.
From the MariaDB website, here is the definition:
MariaDB is the compatible successor to MySQL, the world's
most popular Open Source database. MariaDB has greatly improved scalability and
performance, engines for NoSQL and volume transaction processing, and
clustering capability. The MariaDB client libraries are available under the
liberal LGPL license, enabling a new generation of commercial applications. In
a study by the 451 Group in May 2012, 85% of the companies surveyed were using
MariaDB or MySQL data formats.