O'Reilly News: MySQL

MySQL faster, better, and still unified: notes about Sun, Monty Widenius, Percona, and Drizzle

2009-05-22T02:10:07Z

It might have seemed last week, with the announcement of the Open Database Alliance, that MySQL is forking. The ODA promises a "central clearinghouse for MySQL development" and claims to improve on areas where criticism has historically been aimed at MySQL AB/Sun: bug-fixing, performance, and community responsiveness. But what's going on behind the scenes is much more subtle and promises a much better outcome for MySQL.

MySQL 2009 conference wrap-up: news flash about Flash and other notes from the experts

2009-04-24T06:11:57Z

MySQL conference wrap-up: Flash, cloud computing, managing large installations, the value of community, and how to fumble your way to winning the presidency.

MySQL conference begins: the resurgence of InnoDB and other current events

2009-04-22T05:39:46Z

I sense a bigger enterprise theme at the MySQL conference this year. The pride of putting up a PHP- or Rails-backed web site lies in the past; now people are concerned with scaling into the clouds (figuratively and literally) and ensuring absolute reliability.

Brian Aker: What Would an IBM Buyout of Sun Mean for MySQL?

2009-03-26T02:18:24Z

MySQL has had a long and sometimes strange journey from an independent database project to being commercialized; then brought to Sun and now possibly moving to a new home again. Brian Aker is the director of technology for MySQL with Sun Microsystems and probably is familiar as anyone with the life history and current status of the popular open-source database. He recently discussed the current status of MySQL with us, and how it might fare if IBM were to acquire Sun.

Read an Excerpt from High Performance MySQL: Winner of a Productivity Award at the 19th Annual Jolt Awards

2009-03-17T18:54:12Z

We're delighted to announce that High Performance MySQL, Second Edition, was awarded a Jolt Productivity Award in the category of Technical Books. The Jolts are the Oscars of the software development industry, showcasing the books, tools, and other products that have "jolted" the industry. Congratulations to the authors of this title. To celebrate, we've posted an excerpt from the book.

Microsoft's Cloud Tax

2008-12-24T15:57:58Z

The importance of the differences among web application platforms like .NET, JSP, PHP, etc. drops dramatically under the cloud computing paradigm. Which architecture you choose really comes down to one question: what kind of programming and support resources do you have? If the answer is "Microsoft technologies", however, you should be aware of the Microsoft cloud tax.

Installing Instant Rails on Windows

2008-12-22T14:16:33Z

Instant Rails is getting old, but it's still a quick way to install Rails and start coding. This screencast shows how to download and install Instant Rails, and shows off how it works with a simple example from Chapter 2 of Learning Rails.

New MySQL Query Analyzer for enterprise customers

2008-11-19T13:50:53Z

MySQL AB (now Sun's Database group) established a multi-pronged business model long ago: support contracts, dual licensing, and proprietary add-ons all play a role in making them one of the biggest success stories in the area of open source business. Today their MySQL Query Analyzer adds another brick to that edifice. The analyzer can do simple things such as tell you how long a recent query took and how the optimizer handled it (the results of EXPLAIN statements). But it can also give historical information such as how the current runs of a query compare to earlier runs.

MySQL forks: could Drizzle be the next of the new generation of relational database?

2008-07-23T05:37:30Z

I had a brief talk with leading MySQL develop Brian Aker today about one of the biggest turns in MySQL history: this morning's Drizzle announcement. Brian presented Drizzle as an irrevocable fork of MySQL. To me it represents four deliberate steps in one. Drizzle also calls to mind a lot of the complaints just published by Margo Seltzer in the Communications of the ACM.

Optimization, Backups, Replication, and more

2008-06-25T21:10:31Z

High Performance MySQL, Second Edition is the definitive guide to building fast, reliable systems with MySQL. Written by noted experts with years of real-world experience building very large systems, this book covers every aspect of MySQL performance in detail, and focuses on robustness, security, and data integrity. Learn advanced techniques in depth so you can bring out MySQL's full power. The second edition is completely revised and greatly expanded, with deeper coverage in all areas. Learn more.

Brian Aker's Vision for a Livable Design, Looking at MySQL as OSCON Approaches

2008-06-03T02:10:31Z

With me today is Brian Aker, Director of Technology for MySQL. Brian is the author of Running Weblogs w/ Slash. He's also leading a tutorial at O'Reilly's Open Source Convention, July 21-25, in Portland, Oregon...