Tag Archives: mysql
Earlier this month, I had a half-hour chat with Kellyn Gorman, a Database and AI Advocate and Engineer at Redgate. The UK software company is known for database DevOps and database management tools most databases – and since 2024 as the owner of DB-Engines popularity Ranking of database management systems.
The chat was an intellectual pleasure, to say the least. Kellyn is outstandingly well informed on databases, with a background starting in Oracle, spanning most databases as a DBA and industry analyst, and by now using MariaDB for about fifteen years, almost since its inception.
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Continue reading “Database Trends: What is changing in the database world (besides AI)”
Why MariaDB is both its own database — and the natural continuation of MySQL
Because MariaDB is at the same time a completely independent database and a fundamentally compatible extension of MySQL, the MySQL user base is not dependent upon Oracle nor upon new forks of MySQL for their future. For pragmatical reasons – and those have always carried weight in the MySQL universe – MariaDB is part of the MySQL ecosystem.
Applications, teams, skills, investments, and use cases — all of it remains viable within the MariaDB part of the MySQL ecosystem.
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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.
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Continue reading “Reading the Room: What Europe’s MySQL Community Is Really Saying”
MariaDB is the natural replacement for MySQL. Why? Because it is the organic continuation of the MySQL that conquered the Internet. MySQL 8.0 is a fork of that foundation, while MariaDB stayed on track.
That said, the MySQL fork is soft: Compatibility remains remarkable and migration back to the mothership is smooth.
As the Chairman of the MariaDB Foundation, and someone having joined MySQL AB’s management team in 2001, that is my response to the article As Oracle loses interest in MySQL, devs mull future options in The Register.
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Continue reading “MariaDB is the natural replacement for MySQL”
At the MariaDB Foundation, clarity of purpose matters. In an ecosystem as foundational as open-source databases, confidence is built not through slogans, but through predictability, restraint, and long-term commitment.
As I reflect upon what we learned in 2025 and how we can serve the database community in 2026, one thought stands out: MariaDB is the natural successor to MySQL, as Oracle loses its interest in the development of what has been the default Open Source Relational DBMS.
The MariaDB Foundation recognises its responsibility. As uncertainty around MySQL’s long-term direction continues to grow, the global community of users, operators, and vendors quite reasonably seeks continuity.
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Continue reading “Making MariaDB the Natural Successor to MySQL”
The Queen’s Seven Predictions for 2026
When Queen Isabella I of Castile agreed to fund Columbus, it was not because the idea felt daring or exciting. It was because the old routes were failing. Europe’s trade system had become expensive, fragile, and constrained, and maintaining it unchanged was no longer a neutral decision. Supporting the voyage was not an act of romance, but of governance: an acceptance that continuing as before carried greater risk than change.
Crucially, nothing collapsed overnight. Trade still flowed. Goods still arrived. But every journey became longer, costlier, and more politically exposed.
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The news has circulated quietly in industry corners, but the implications are far too significant to brush aside: Oracle seems to have ended the Open Source era of MySQL.
I am not a spokesperson for Oracle, yet the signs are unmistakable. Entire teams associated with MySQL at Oracle have been dissolved, spanning engineering, development and sales. On LinkedIn, I’ve received a wave of messages from former colleagues — both long-time MySQL veterans and those who joined Oracle years after MariaDB was founded in 2009.
The impression is clear: Oracle has made a rational business decision to pivot towards AI and cloud, where MySQL only matters insofar as it strengthens OCI and Heatwave.
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Continue reading “When Oracle Drops the Ball: Why MariaDB is the Future of the MySQL World”
We’re here, we’re open source, and we have RDBMS based Vector Search for you! With the release of MariaDB 11.6 Vector Preview, the MariaDB Server ecosystem can finally check out how the long-awaited Vector Search functionality of MariaDB Server works. The effort is a result of collaborative work by employees of MariaDB plc, MariaDB Foundation and contributors, particularly from Amazon AWS.
Previously on “MariaDB Vector”
If you’re new to Vector, this is what’s happened so far:
- We blogged a number of times about our view of where Gen AI belongs in MariaDB Server
- We showed a first demo in February at our FOSDEM Fringe Event
- We launched a project page on mariadb.org/projects/mariadb-vector/, containing a number of videos
- We went on stage at Intel Vision in London, with AI everywhere
- We blogged about Amazon’s take on Vectors and MariaDB, in “MariaDB is soon a vector database, too“
The main point: MariaDB Vector is ready for experimentation
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