Installing MySQL is a simple process. It is very common on a modern Windows machine to install in under three minutes. The Windows Installer Team have really increased the speed in the last few releases. But what if you are running Linux?

For the very fussy who want everything tailored ‘just so’, download the source code and configure exactly what you want. Don’t need Serbian character sets, different collations, or some storage engines you never use? Then read up on Installing MySQL from Source. With a bit of time and fuss, you can have a minimalist server that contains only the components you need. This is not recommended unless you know you can lock down the system and never, ever need to ad more components on the fly.

Next comes the MySQL Binaries. Untar/Zip the file from Dev.MySQl.Com, point your config files to the …