Reading the Room: What Europe’s MySQL Community Is Really Saying

FOSDEM was exciting from a MariaDB perspective for many reasons this year. For this blog, let me concentrate on one aspect: The discussions at what was called the “Summit for MySQL Community, Europe”, hosted by Percona on Monday 2 Feb 2026 at the Marriott Grand Place in central Brussels.

We got the answer key – the “Oracle examiner’s solution”

With many of my former MySQL AB colleagues leaving Oracle over the years, I certainly had a fairly good picture of what has been happening at Oracle since I left the company shortly after the acquisition of Sun Microsystems was completed in 2009.

Multimodal-Metadata-Hub for MariaDB Vector – Innovation 2nd place at MariaDB BangPypers Hackathon 2025

We recently announced the winners of the MariaDB Python Hackathon. We sat down with the Innovation track second place winners to learn more about the team and their submission.

Sunny Kumar, Abhijeet Dhanotiya, Anuj Gupta, Tushan Kumar Sinha, and Anand Vyas developed Metadata-Hub, a multimodal semantic search application using MariaDB Vector and OpenAI’s CLIP model. They were interviewed by Robert Silén, Community Advocate and Kaj Arnö, Executive Chairman of MariaDB Foundation. For the recorded interview, watch it on Youtube, or read the interview below.

Before we start, a short explanation: 

Adaptive Query Optimizer for MariaDB Vector – Innovation Winner of MariaDB Python Hackathon 2025

We recently announced the winners  of the MariaDB Python Hackathon. We sat down with the Innovation track first place winners to learn more about the team and their submission.

Aakanksha Singh and Mihir Phalke developed an Adaptive Query Optimizer for MariaDB Vector, addressing performance challenges in vector similarity search operations. They were interviewed by Robert Silén, Community Advocate and Kaj Arnö, Executive Chairman of MariaDB Foundation. For the recorded interview, watch it on Youtube, or read the interview below.

Introducing Mihir and Aakanksha

Mihir: My name is Mihir Phalke and alongside me is Aakanksha Singh.

Dagster integration for MariaDB – 2nd place in MariaDB BangPypers Hackathon 2025

We recently announced the winners of the MariaDB Hackathon at the BangPypers meetup in Bengaluru. We are now interviewing the winner submissions, continuing with the Integration track second place winner.

We sat down with Ria Kulkarni and Revanth Sreeram Ambati who developed a Dagster integration for MariaDB, bringing modern data orchestration capabilities to the MariaDB ecosystem. They were interviewed by Robert Silén, Community Advocate and Kaj Arnö, Executive Chairman of MariaDB Foundation.

For the recorded interview, watch it on Youtube, or read the summary below. 

First, let us repeat a short introduction on the topic of data orchestration that we also shared in the interview with the Airflow Integration track winner. 

Apache Airflow integration for MariaDB – winner of MariaDB BangPypers Hackathon 2025

We recently announced the winners of the MariaDB Hackathon at the BangPypers meetup in Bengaluru. We sat down with the Integration track first place winner to learn more about the team and their submission. 

Pratush Maheshwari and Jyothi Muthuraj developed an Apache Airflow integration for MariaDB, addressing a significant gap in the data engineering ecosystem. They were interviewed by Robert Silén, Community Advocate and Kaj Arnö, Executive Chairman of MariaDB Foundation. For the recorded interview, watch it on Youtube, or read the summary below. 

But first, a short introduction to the topic of data orchestration. 

Top ideas in the MariaDB-Python hackathon

As we blogged last week, the ideation phase of the MariaDB-Python hackathon ended with a heap of ideas. Due to the sheer mass, we had a tough time evaluating suitable ideas and teams for the development phase.

Now that we have proceeded to the development phase, we are really looking forward to seeing all short-listed ideas materialize to code! Let’s take a look at a few ideas from each track that stood out of the crowd.

A short recap: the hackathon is about Making MariaDB easier to use by two approaches, reflected by the two tracks: Integrations and Innovations

MariaDB Python Hackathon: Building Momentum with Quality Idea Submissions

The MariaDB Python Hackathon is gaining impressive traction! Following our AMA session (Ask Me Anything) on Friday, September 5th, we’ve seen even more encouraging engagement. Here’s where we stand and what we’re looking for as the idea submission phase continues until the end of September.

Strong Community Engagement

The response has been energizing, so far:

  • Over 2,300 registrations from developers, from India and elsewhere
  • 1,600+ teams formed and actively collaborating
  • Steady stream of quality ideas being submitted

AMA webinar

Our AMA webinar on September 5th drew 164 unique viewers to a short summary of the hackathon and a productive Questions and Answers session. 

🚀 Build the Future with Python & MariaDB – Win $10,000 and Dinner with the MySQL & MariaDB Founder!

Imagine hacking your way to $10,000 in prizes (sponsored by MariaDB plc) – and topping it off with an exclusive dinner in Finland with Monty Widenius, the legendary creator of MySQL and MariaDB. Sounds unreal? That’s exactly what’s at stake in the upcoming MariaDB-Python Hackathon.

Why Join?

This isn’t just another hackathon. It’s your chance to:

  • 💡 Innovate with AI & Databases – Showcase MariaDB’s unique powers, from Vector Search for RAG/LLMs to Oracle compatibility and more.
  • 🔌 Build Killer Integrations – Connect 1MariaDB to frameworks, ORMs, Jupyter notebooks, or any open-source project you love.