A Conversation with Michal Schorm: MariaDB in Red Hat and Fedora

In a recent conversation, I had the pleasure of speaking with Michal Schorm, the maintainer of MariaDB packages for Red Hat and Fedora – and newly elected Observer on the MariaDB Foundation Board. Our discussion covered his role, the current state of MariaDB in these distributions, and ideas for future improvements.

The Role of a MariaDB Package Maintainer

Michal is responsible for ensuring that the MariaDB source code is compiled and made available as installable packages for Fedora, CentOS Stream, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). His work includes handling bug reports, user feedback, and continuously improving the packaging process.

Having maintained MariaDB in Fedora for over eight years, Michal shared his positive experience with the MariaDB community, pointing out its openness and willingness to help.

The State of MariaDB in Red Hat and Fedora

Currently, Fedora and RHEL ship MariaDB 10.11, but Michal and his team are actively preparing for an upgrade. The next target? MariaDB 11.8, the latest long-term support (LTS) release, which introduces vector storage and other key enhancements.

Improving Documentation and Testing

Michal sees room for improvement in documentation of MariaDB within the Fedora and Red Hat context. Rather than writing everything himself, he suggests that MariaDB experts contribute ideas on the most important topics—such as best practices for backups and performance tuning.

I can confirm that I have received concrete suggestions from Michal. I am leading them onwards and we are taking actions. 

Another area for enhancement is testing and code quality. Michal proposes integrating static code analysis into MariaDB’s CI/CD pipeline, so issues are detected earlier, particularly in GitHub pull requests.

Moving Forward

It’s always valuable to hear from experienced maintainers like Michal, who bring insights from years of hands-on work with MariaDB. His suggestions for better documentation and automated quality control align perfectly with our goal of making MariaDB more reliable and accessible.

Thank you, Michal!

Michal has done a great job as maintainer of MariaDB for Red Hat and Fedora, making MariaDB Server more useful. I look forward to continuing this conversation and collaborating on his improvement suggestions.

A big thank you to Michal for sharing his thoughts and expertise – and for his great work pushing the boundaries, over the last eight years!