MySQL

Monty-Widenius-David-Axmark-MySQL-2003-05-09

Geir Høydalsvik at Percona Live Europe 2018 3

LAMP software bundle

The MySQL Workbench startup screen

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) based on Structured Query Language (SQL). It is developed, distributed, and supported by Oracle Corporation. MySQL is widely used for web development, data warehousing, e-commerce, and logging applications. It is a central component of the LAMP web application software stack, which is an acronym for "Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python".

History

MySQL was created by a Swedish company, MySQL AB, founded by Michael Widenius (also known as 'Monty'), David Axmark, and Allan Larsson in 1995. The project's source code was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) in 2000, which made it one of the first open-source databases available on the market. In 2008, MySQL AB was acquired by Sun Microsystems, which was in turn acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2010. Despite concerns over Oracle's stewardship of MySQL, the project has continued to thrive and evolve under Oracle's management.

Features

MySQL supports a wide range of features, including:

• ACID compliance through its InnoDB storage engine
• Cross-platform support
• Replication and partitioning for scaling and high availability
• Stored procedures, triggers, and views for advanced data manipulation
• A strong security system that includes SSL support and access control lists (ACLs)

Usage

MySQL is used by many large-scale websites and applications. It is known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. Some of the well-known users of MySQL include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Netflix. It is also popular among small to medium-sized web applications, especially those running on the LAMP stack.

Versions

MySQL has several versions, including MySQL Community Edition, which is free and open source, and MySQL Enterprise Edition, which includes additional features and support aimed at enterprise customers. MySQL releases are divided into General Availability (GA) releases, which are considered stable, and Development releases, which are not recommended for production use.

Competitors

MySQL competes with other RDBMS systems such as PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle Database. Each of these systems has its own set of features and advantages, but MySQL is often chosen for its open-source nature, wide adoption, and strong community support.

See Also

• MariaDB, a fork of MySQL created by the original developers after concerns over Oracle's acquisition
• NoSQL, a class of database management systems that do not use SQL as their primary data manipulation language
• Database normalization, a process for organizing data in a database