At the moment, it's not even possible to download and install MySQL anymore.
I was setting up a Wordpress install a week ago, so I headed over to MySQL.org and hit the download link. They won't let you even download it without having your company "Reviewed" these days. So I filled out my info and was told I'd hear back when they were ready.
That was a week ago. No word back. I still can't even download it.
I could never understand anybody would use MySQL for anything business critical. Now it seems that nobody is allowed to use it for anything at all.
The article presents the problem as mostly organizational and not with the actual software. Maybe the parent comment was a little off topic, but it also serves to further illustrate the problem.
The parent commenter was familiar enough with the product to know he wanted to use it, but the project and its strategy is so disorganized that he walked away empty handed. Now he's unknowingly spreading misinformation to other people who may be deciding whether or not to use the product.
This is really a perfect example of what the article discussed. MySQL tries to present itself as an open source organization but does not function as such, resulting in confusion and frustration among contributors. The fact that consumers are also confused over what they can and can't do only goes to show that these mixed messages have permeated the entire organization.
This is an ooold problem, and I don't mean organizational, but people confusing the download link. I think I did it first at least 5 years ago. Still, the GP should be downmodded at least to a pale gray, maybe -2, and stay there. An honest mistake is still a mistake, and it's our job to mark it clearly as such.
As far as the project being disorganized, I'd much rather think this comes from the old days when men were men, documentations came in man pages and people were ashamed of not RTFM. I know I held my head down for at least a week after that.
I've been using MySQL since 1998, and am well aware that there is a commercial version as well as the open source one. It's the community version I was trying to download.
The fact that me, a guy who's downloaded and installed this software a dozen times in 11 years, got completely shut down trying to download it this time says a lot about the usability of that site these days.
i just went to mysql.org and within 3 clicks was at the download page. you probably saw the links to the commercial version and clicked on those instead.
however, why wouldn't you try to download it through whichever package management system your operating system uses? i'm sure whatever you're using already has pre-built packages that have been patched/tested for your specific platform.
Also, documentation is hard to find on the mysql.com site. If it weren't for google taking me directly to the page I need on a search for "mysql [searchterm]", I'm not sure how long it would have taken for me to find the doc I needed this morning on their site. It's as if they've decided to ditch the main community of their users. :)
--> Pick a Mirror --> New User --> Giant Form full of required fields.
That's the form I'm still waiting to hear back from, a week later.
(Looks like they have a "skip this" link buried down below it, but really, are we expected to scrutineer the page that carefully just to download their thing?)
I was setting up a Wordpress install a week ago, so I headed over to MySQL.org and hit the download link. They won't let you even download it without having your company "Reviewed" these days. So I filled out my info and was told I'd hear back when they were ready.
That was a week ago. No word back. I still can't even download it.
I could never understand anybody would use MySQL for anything business critical. Now it seems that nobody is allowed to use it for anything at all.