The Future Of MySQL: Forks, Patches And Decisions

MySQL has been the default database for most web applications for years now. It is a standard in the community and is the bar by which everyone else is judged, for good and bad. However, things are mostly definitely changing. The trend for the last year has been major developments outside of MySQL AB, funded by everyone from Google to Percona to MontyProgram. In fact, the 5.4 release of MySQL is little more than a re-packaging of external patches. This is a far cry from an earlier MySQL AB driven development model.

With Oracle's purchase of Sun and by extension MySQL AB, this change has accelerated. The size of MontyProgram AB has expanded considerably and Percona has become an InnoDB development shop.

Suddenly the world is not as simple as it used to be. We can no longer just safely pick the most recent version of MySQL. In fact, that maybe your worst option. In this session we will cover:

• What happened? Why?
• The current major players in MySQL development
• The current stable versions of MySQL to choose from and their advantages for Drupal (6 and 7)
• The experimental developments everyone will soon be talking about
• Drupal 7 and the rise of a mixed-databased infrastructure
• What all of this means for the standard Drupal System Administrator