Welcome to the 160th edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs.

MySQL

Blame it on MyISAM, says Mark Callaghan of High Availability MySQL, on considering sql_mode and type coercion. “I think that MyISAM has its place,” writes Mark. “It does fast table scans, but InnoDB is much faster on just about everything else. I am just not thrilled with the impact it has had on MySQL.”

Not that those other engines are without flaw. Peter Zaitsev reports on an InnoDB performance gotcha with larger queries.

Here on the …

 Here is the set of new parameters available with the InnoDB Plugin 1.0.4

NameScopeDynamicDefault

innodb_adaptive_flushingGLOBALYESTRUE innodb_change_bufferingGLOBALYESinserts innodb_file_formatGLOBALYESAntelope innodb_file_format_checkGLOBALYESON innodb_io_capacityGLOBALYES200 innodb_read_ahead_thresholdGLOBALYES56 innodb_read_io_threadsGLOBALNO4 innodb_spin_wait_delayGLOBALYES6

From 1.1.0 on, Connector/C++ can optionally use run-time dynamic linking to access the MySQL Client Library (AKA libmysql). If you make use of this new feature, it will not only change the application binary interface (ABI) but also has some impact on your client applications. The new expert setting is not enabled by default. By default, you will not notice any differences.

The next version of MySQL Connector/C++ will be numbered 1.1.0. 1.1.0 marks the successful end of the first year of development. The driver finally offers everything needed by its two "internal customers". Also, feedback from MySQL Workbench and Connector/OpenOffice.org and the bug inflow demonstrated the maturity that has been reached making it a logical step to bump up the version number.

While MySQL Workbench has been happy with the feature set for a while, we implemented a couple of changes in 1.1.0 to also …

From 1.1.0 on, Connector/C++ can optionally use run-time dynamic linking to access the MySQL Client Library (AKA libmysql). If you make use of this new feature, it will not only change the application binary interface (ABI) but also has some impact on your client applications. The new expert setting is not enabled by default. By default, you will not notice any differences.

The next version of MySQL Connector/C++ will be numbered 1.1.0. 1.1.0 marks the successful end of the first year of development. The driver finally offers everything needed by its two "internal customers". Also, feedback from MySQL Workbench and Connector/OpenOffice.org and the bug inflow demonstrated the maturity that has been reached making it a logical step to bump up the version number.

While MySQL Workbench has been happy with the feature set for a while, we implemented a couple of changes in 1.1.0 to also …

The InnoDB Plugin (1.0.4) is  pretty straight forward configuration. These instructions are for MySQL 5.1.38.  There is a new release of InnoDB Plugin with the 5.1.41 release. With MySQL you can use the default version of InnoDB or the new Plugin but not both.  If using a non-default configuration make sure and set the plugin_dir variable to point to the ha_innodb_plugin library for your system.

Red Hat round-up. EC to review Oracle-Sun. Dedicated Ubuntu support. And more.

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Red Hat announcements round-up
Red Hat announced a whole heap of products and projects this week. They should have organized an event to coincide with all the announcements. Or something. The biggest news was probably the launch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 including KVM and other virtualization capabilities, while Red Hat and HP partnered to optimize Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for HP BladeSystem Matrix. The company also revealed that Red Hat Network Satellite …

This is very relevant in the context of the EU probe of the Oracle-Sun takeover. MySQL’s share of the database market, which is usually measured by revenue, is of course peanuts and estimated range from half a percent to something slightly more. Peanuts.

This is not surprising, considering an estimated 999 out of every 1000 MySQL users does not pay Sun/MySQL anything (although some might be Open Query clients and while MySQL has been targeting higher-end clients and corresponding higher revenue, its pricing is still far lower than the premium-cost of Oracle, DB2 and the like.

All this proves very clearly something which I’ve been saying for years (do scan back in my blog , the definition of market share is borked when it comes to Open Source and low-end disruptors (MySQL has been both although it might no longer be a low-end disruptor, having overshot the needs of a significant chunk of its users). The market …

By now you are probably aware that the European Commission has decided to launch an extended investigation into Oracle’s acquisition of Sun based on concerns over MySQL.

The new has prompted a lot of criticism of the EC, much of it suggesting that the delay will do considerable harm to Sun (and therefore Oracle). This argument is valid - Sun’s already declining revenue has been in freefall since the deal was announced and one wonders how far it will fall in another 90 days of stasis.

Other criticism, (such as this from Matt Asay) focuses on the suggestion that the delay will do little to help MySQL or its users, and that the EC fails to understand open source.

This also has some …

Being tired of spending 5-10 hours per week poking things you take for granted to make them work, I recently ditched the Linux on a laptop idea and got a mac. Haven't looked back, although there are some grave annoyances in the interface between the slick OS X and the applications from the Unix world. Clipboard is one of those. No matter how hard I punced Ctrl-V like you're supposed to, I did not get it to work. All my colleagues gave me that look when I asked them about my problem. 'Well - um - you do know that you shouldn't use cmd-V, right?'. Duh! That wasn't problem. After spending hours sifting through discussion boards and blogs telling me exactly that same thing, I finally found a friendly person who would actually acknowledge that there was a problem here. A big hand for D. W. Hoard:
…

Today the European Commission expressed their concern about Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, framed in the context of the database market.

What strikes me as particularly funny in the reportage on this story is many analysts’ claims that MySQL has a small market share. I’ll pick on Gartner here:

“MySQL has extremely small market share,” said Andy Butler, an analyst with IT research firm Gartner. “The E.C. is losing sight of the big picture and is bringing about a more anticompetitive situation by focusing on one product at the expense of the other moving parts.”

This quote is pulled from a Wall Street Journal article that posits, “Many analysts believe the commission’s focus on …