This article is from 2006. MySQL has come a long way since then. MySQL 5.5 is very robust and feature-rich, matching Oracle in many different areas including datatypes, stored procedures and functions, high availability solutions, ACID compliance and MVCC, hotbackups, cold backups and dumps, full text, and other index options, materialized views and much more. Here’s a high level mysql feature guide.
What really separates the two technologies is culture. MySQL, rooted in the open-source tradition is much more do-it-yourself, leaning towards roll-your-own solutions in many cases. Meanwhile, Oracle provides named and proven paths to solve specific problems.
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