
Wikipedia Adopts MariaDB - JeremyMorgan
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/04/22/wikipedia-adopts-mariadb/
======
cs702
Official announcement: [https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/04/22/wikipedia-
adopts-maria...](https://blog.wikimedia.org/2013/04/22/wikipedia-adopts-
mariadb/)

MariaDB looks likely to inherit a big slice, possibly even a majority, of
MySQL's user base over time.

It's not just because MariaDB is as good as any of the "official" editions of
MySQL offered by Oracle, but because it has only a single code base under a
single Free license (as opposed to differently licensed "open source" and
"enterprise" editions), because it has an active not-for-profit foundation
looking out for the project and the community[1], and because many of the
original contributors to MySQL, including founder Monty Widenius, are now
working full-time on MariaDB.[2]

Say hello to the new MySQL -- MariaDB -- same as the old MySQL!

\--

[1] <https://mariadb.org/en/foundation/>

[2] [http://www.skysql.com/news-and-events/press-
releases/skysql-...](http://www.skysql.com/news-and-events/press-
releases/skysql-merges-with-mariadb-developers)

~~~
cagenut
The official post is excellent, we should swap out the blogspam link for it.

"For our most common query type, 95th percentile times over an 8-hour period
dropped from 56ms to 43ms and the average from 15.4ms to 12.7ms. 50th
percentile times remained a bit better with the 5.1-facebook build over the
sample period, 0.185ms vs. 0.194ms. Many query types were 4-15% faster with
MariaDB 5.5.30 under production load, a few were 5% slower, and nothing
appeared aberrant beyond those bounds."

------
mdesq
Ever since Oracle has taken hold of MySQL (I was at Oracle at the time, and
saw their goals firsthand), they have been trying to extract as much money as
possible from anyone using the database in a commercial way. Just the mention
of MySQL strikes fear in the heart of any executive who has had any
interaction with the mob that is the Oracle money extraction machine.

The sooner we all can move on and keep from using MySQL, the better, and good
riddance to it and the red horse it unfortunately rides in on.

------
PaulHoule
This article has many facts wrong.

It seems that MySQL development halted entirely at Sun.

I was concerned about Oracle's motives w.r.t MySQL but I can say they have
come out with major new releases that improve MySQL in substantial ways. For
instance, they've greatly improved the scalability of InnoDB on large SMP
machines.

On the other hand, neither Sun nor Oracle have been really wanting to win with
MySQL either and I think we could have seen more and different innovation in
MySQL if it had been in other hands.

The Wikipedia win is big for MariaDB because it's a show of confidence that it
works in demanding applications.

~~~
arkitaip
Was there ever a doubt that MariaDB wouldn't work in demanding applications?
It's pretty much MySQL all the way down.

~~~
mjolk
"No one ever got fired for buying IBM."

As a corollary, no one wants to be the guy that suggested MongoDB before it
caused an outage.

~~~
kbenson
I think that only makes sense if you don't know what MariaDB is. It's a fork
that attempts to maintain high compatibility, run by the founder of MySQL.

What it _isn't_ is a different program entirely, with a different protocol,
syntax, scalability, consistency and community.

~~~
mjolk
You missed the point. The idea is management and investor confidence, buy-in.

Here's how it works in most companies: MySQL goes down = something seriously
bad happened. MariaDB went down = that database that Ted suggested sure is a
piece of shit.

~~~
kbenson
Well that depends on how Ted presented it, doesn't it? If he says "Let's try
this _other_ database _instead of_ MySQL" may turn out different than if he
says "Let's try this other _version_ of MySQL put out by MariaDB".

In the end it comes down to having data to support your position though. If
MariaDB goes down, and you can't answer whether it would have happened the
same in MySQL, then maybe you shouldn't be making database suggestions. If it
_wouldn't_ have happened to MySQL, well then people were right to be wary,
weren't they?

------
dangrossman
Is there a reason to choose MariaDB over Percona or vice-versa? They're both
drop-in replacements for MySQL and both replace InnoDB with XtraDB (which
Percona makes).

~~~
leef
The only real feature MariaDB offers over vanilla MySQL and Percona is an
improved optimizer for complex sql queries [1].

In most cases Percona seems to be a win over both MySQL and MariaDB as it is
just patch layer over MySQL with features and tweaks that real production
users see and need. These features tend to end up in future MySQL releases
like saving and restoring the buffer pool allowing mysql to warm start. I
believe that feature made it in to MySQL 5.6 but was added to percona/mysql
5.1.

[1] <http://blog.mariadb.org/mariadb-5-3-optimizer-benchmark/>

------
voidlogic
Is MariaDB still substantially slower than MySQL?

[http://dimitrik.free.fr/blog/archives/2013/02/mysql-
performa...](http://dimitrik.free.fr/blog/archives/2013/02/mysql-performance-
mysql-56-vs-mysql-55-vs-mariadb-55.html)

~~~
jlogsdon
The official blog post makes it sound like overall it was a performance gain
with a few edge cases coming out 5% slower.

~~~
voidlogic
I wish it talked more about their DB hardware, I would believe MariaDB is more
performant for scale out, whereas the MySQL improvement have been targeting
scale up (something Oracle is very good at).

------
tyleregeto
The big battle MariaDB (or any DB) is going to have is gaining ground in the
shared web host space. That makes up a pretty large portion of websites, and
there is no incentive for those providers to change. I'd love to see other DB
options in that space, its all PHP/MySQL.

~~~
richardwhiuk
That'll probably happen - mainly because the distributions will probably
switch over to MariaDB. I'd expect Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS etc to all ship
MariaDB as an upgrade at some point.

~~~
e12e
Unfortunately it would appear Debian is actually lagging a bit behind in this
regard:

<http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=565308>

------
ck2
The only problem I foresee with MariaDB is they have no interest in porting
innodb fulltext search like MySQL 5.6

Sure there are other fulltext solutions but to simply convert myisam to
innodb, FTS on innodb with the same queries is rather helpful.

------
mattwritescode
So bets on how long it will be until MariaDB is scooped by Oracle?

~~~
cmsefton
I had the benefit of seeing Monty talk at All Your Base conference in Oxford
last year, and let me tell you, he made it quite clear that a huge driving
force behind MariaDB is to take on Oracle, because he absolutely hates them
for what they've done with MySQL. Remember, the original sale of MySQL wasn't
to Oracle, it was to Sun, which was then acquired by Oracle. After hearing
what he had to say, I have nothing but a tremendous amount of respect for
Monty, and wish him all the success in the world.

~~~
frenchy
> he absolutely hates them for what they've done with MySQL

I may be a bit ignorant, but what have they done with MySQL?

~~~
cmsefton
You can watch the video of his talk here. <http://vimeo.com/56639635>

Perhaps "hate" is the wrong word, and it should be more "dislike", since
Oracle are essentially the complete opposite of what Monty wants to encourage
(e.g. Hacker Business Model, Open Source). My memory's a bit hazy, but from
what I gathered, Oracle tried to stop MySQL in its early days by acquiring the
INNODB Engine around 2005. After that, once Oracle acquired Sun and thus
MySQL, Monty and many of the other original developers saw Oracle as being
against the spirit of the original intention of MySQL, shifting away from the
principles they wanted to encourage, particularly open source philosophies,
and they wanted to make sure a version of MySQL would always stay free. From
what I recall, he believed that Oracle were no longer fixing known bugs
because they didn't know how, and they were also moving from "open source" to
"open core", where new features were closed source.

------
eliot_sykes
Anyone know of any hosted MariaDB offerings out there that can be used with
Heroku?

