Is Oracle Finally Killing MySQL?
Percona is an open source database software, support, and services company that helps make databases and applications run better.
Some 15 years ago, when Oracle acquired Sun , and hence MySQL, there was a lot of talk on the internet over when Oracle was going to “Kill MySQL”. Multiple theories were circled around, ranging from killing MySQL altogether, so there is less competition to proprietary Oracle, or just killing it as an open source project, leaving “MySQL Enterprise” as the only option. Spreading such rumors was good business for MariaDB and PostgreSQL as well as other lesser competitors so they were spread very wide.
In reality, though, Oracle ended up being quite a good steward of MySQL. The MySQL team was left mostly alone, with MySQL old-timer Tomas Ulin largely calling the shots. MySQL has become more stable and secure. A lot of technical debt was fixed, and a lot of features modern developers wanted were added, such as JSON support and support for advanced SQL standard features.
While there was “MySQL Enterprise ,” it really was focused on the features enterprises would need and developers would care little about, such as Pluggable Authentication, Auditing, Firewalling, etc. While there was also a proprietary GUI, Monitoring, and Backup tool (e.g., MySQL Enterprise Monitor), there were also plenty of open source and proprietary competitors, so it did not create huge lock-in.
