The MariaDB Foundation is releasing the BETA version of the Test Automation Framework (TAF) 2.5. This release represents a significant architectural upgrade, strengthening the framework’s lifecycle model, profiling capabilities, extraction and install pipeline, and reporting consistency. The focus of the BETA is on determinism, clarity, and contributor‑proof behavior across the entire workflow.
TAF continues to serve as an open, reproducible framework for evaluating MariaDB builds, running performance workloads, collecting diagnostics, and validating behavior across versions. The 2.5 BETA builds on the earlier Alpha release by refining the internal architecture and expanding the framework’s ability to support community testing.
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Preview releases are among the clearest ways an open-source community can shape the future of a database before it becomes a production reality. They give users early access to new features, a chance to validate upgrade paths, and an opportunity to catch issues while the change is still inexpensive.
In our recent survey, we asked a simple question:
“Have you used a MariaDB preview release?”
The responses tell an interesting story about awareness, experimentation, and where the MariaDB community still sees friction.
Compared with the last polls, we had a slightly smaller number of participants.
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This is the last post in the “MariaDB Vector: How it works” series. The first three were about storage, in-memory representation, HNSW modifications. Everything that was done in MariaDB 11.8. This post talks about new feature in MariaDB 12.3: optimized distance calculation.
As I mentioned earlier, distance calculation is the most time consuming part of the vector search, taking 80–90% of the total search time. Also it is linear on the number of dimension — computing the distance between vectors of 1536 dimensions takes twice as long compared to vectors of 768 dimensions.
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Percona’s new 2026 benchmark report is interesting because it puts several MySQL-family releases on the same graphs and shares a public repository for the test harness. That openness is welcome. But after reading both the article and the published scripts, I do not think the post supports broad conclusions about “ecosystem performance,” and I especially do not think it represents an adequately tuned MariaDB, worthy of a neutral comparison.
Versions
The versions chosen for MariaDB are already a subject of debate. MySQL 9.6.0 (the latest Innovation Release) and MariaDB 12.1.2 (a rolling release) were used.
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In the previous parts of this series we’ve seen how MariaDB stores vector indexes in a table and how to implement HNSW for a good performance. But MariaDB is not implementing HNSW, it calls its vector search algorithm mHNWS, a modified HNSW. Let’s see how exactly it was modified.
Not so greedy!
HWNS, like many, if not most, graph based vector search algorithms is greedy. Think of it this way, when it needs to find just one nearest vector (ef=1), it will walk the graph always choosing the node that will take it the closest to the target at this particular step.
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One of the things I really like about open source is that a project is never only about the software.
Yes, code is important. Very important. But a project like MariaDB exists and grows because of people. People who contribute code, of course, but also people who help users, review bugs, write blog posts, speak at events, answer questions, test new features, build tools, and share knowledge with others.
This is exactly why I’m very happy to announce the MariaDB Foundation Sea Lion Champions program.
It’s a new initiative to recognize the people who help make the MariaDB ecosystem stronger.
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Continue reading “Know a MariaDB champion? Submit a nomination”
I came across an excellent paper by the Linux Foundation. In it I find solid economical evidence for a very fundamental idea: contributions are the life-blood of an open source project.
Contributions in the broader sense (code, documentation, quality assurance, marketing, education, financial support) are central to every project. Open source or not. Giving users what they need and want is what makes any project appealing. It’s just that with open source, the cost to procuring these is not that directly attached to the actual use. So, there is a gap to cross between passive use and active participation.
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Before I share my takeaway from this MariaDB observability poll, I would like to thank all participants and highlight that these recent polls are very popular, and your participation makes us happy.
That said, we recently asked the MariaDB community the following question:
Which observability tools do you use for MariaDB?
I like polls like this one.
Not because they are perfect. They are not.
Not because they replace real field experience. They do not.
But because sometimes they confirm, very clearly, what many of us already see in practice.
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