Fedora Looks To Replace MySQL With MariaDB

Out of fears that Oracle is making MySQL a more closed software project and not being happy with the overall direction of this widely-used database software, Fedora developers are looking at replacing MySQL with MariaDB in Fedora 19.

A newly proposed Fedora 19 feature is to do away with MySQL and drop in MariaDB instead, per this official proposal from Red Hat's Jaroslav Reznik. In Fedora 19, MariaDB would become the default SQL database package. MySQL would still be available in the Fedora repository for at least one release as the more conservative users make the migration from MySQL to MariaDB. "We would like to replace MySQL with MariaDB in early development cycle for Fedora 19. MySQL will continue to be available for at least one release, but MariaDB will become the default."

Reznik's summary of the MySQL situation from his view comes down to, "The original company behind MySQL, MySQL AB, were bought out by Sun which was then bought by Oracle. Recent changes made by Oracle indicate they are moving the MySQL project to be more closed. They are no longer publishing any useful information about security issues (CVEs), and they are not providing complete regression tests any more, and a very large fraction of the mysql bug database is now not public."

MariaDB is a fork of MySQL that maintains API/ABI compatibility and was started by some of the original MySQL developers. From the get-go, MariaDB has been more community oriented than Oracle's MySQL and to serve as a drop-in replacement for upstream MySQL. While maintaining compatibility, MariaDB has since introduced new features like the XtraDB and Aria storage engines, performance optimizations, etc. The MariaDB fork was born in 2009 following Oracle acquiring Sun Microsystems. A comparison of features between the two SQL database packages can be found on this AskMonty.org page.

In addition to Jaroslav Reznik backing this database change, two other Red Hat developers are also officially backing this F19 feature: Honza Horak and Tom Lane.

More details on this feature plan for Fedora 19 can be found from its Fedora Wiki feature page. For those that have been living under a rock and not familiar with MariaDB, its project site is MariaDB.org.

Other features being eyed for Fedora 19 are covered in Possible Fedora 19 Features Are Published, More Fedora 19 Features Are Proposed, There's Talk Again About Btrfs For Fedora, and More Fedora 19 Feature Talk: BIND10, GCC 4.8, E17, Etc. This next Fedora Linux release is planned for availability in late May and is codenamed Schrödinger's Cat.