The latest from the MySQL community

As we set out to help the MySQL ecosystem assert greater independence from Oracle by establishing a vendor-neutral industry association, we had to confront a deceptively simple question:

What exactly is the MySQL ecosystem?

There are many views on this question.

Some argue it should revolve strictly around the MySQL brand—meaning MariaDB would be excluded. Others believe it should be defined by codebase lineage—therefore ruling out systems like TiDB. Still others insist it must center exclusively on open-source software, which would exclude offerings such as AWS Aurora for MySQL.

We believe this kind of exclusivity is counterproductive. It shifts the focus to boundaries instead of outcomes.

What truly matters are MySQL users: the …

What Happened at the Summits

We just wrapped up two MySQL Community Summits – one in San Francisco in January, and one in Brussels right before FOSDEM. The energy in the rooms: a lot of people who care deeply about MySQL got together, exchanged ideas, and left with a clear sense that we need to act.

The goal was to gather the people who care about MySQL, have an open exchange of ideas, and leave with action points.  We had end users, contributors, and vendors all in the same room, all agreeing on one thing: MySQL matters, and we all want MySQL to grow in popularity, not to follow a trajectory of decline.

Where MySQL Stands Today

MySQL is declining in popularity. PostgreSQL has become the default choice for new projects. MySQL is at genuine risk of becoming irrelevant if we don’t do something about it. …

When a replica fails due to corruption or drift, the standard solution is to rebuild it from a fresh copy of the master when pt-table-sync is not an option. Traditionally, when we need to build a new replica, we use a physical backup for speed, but there are some cases where you still need logical backups. For instance, when you migrate to a specific vendor (i.e.: MariaDB to MySQL) or storage engines (in the past MyISAM to InnoDB and nowadays from InnoDB to RocksDB), upgrade to a new database version or move to a cloud based solution. This is where a logical backup shines, offering portability and simplicity, but only if it can be performed quickly. MyDumper emerges as the essential, modern solution, delivering the best of both worlds: the cross-platform, cross-version flexibility of a logical dump combined with the parallel, multi-threaded speed previously reserved for physical methods, making it the clear choice for rapidly rebuilding a consistent …

Over the past weeks, we have seen renewed discussion/concern in the MySQL community around claims that “Oracle has stopped developing MySQL” or that “MySQL is being abandoned.” These concerns were amplified by graphs showing an apparent halt in GitHub commits after October 2025, as well as by blog posts and forum discussions that interpreted these signals at face value.

As someone who has publicly analyzed the MySQL repository activity and who works daily with MySQL at Percona, I want to clearly separate what the data actually shows from what it does not.

This post should not be read as an uncritical defense of Oracle. We often disagree with Oracle’s decisions, and we say so openly. But fairness matters — especially when fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) start affecting customers and the wider ecosystem.

The Claim: “Oracle Stopped Committing to MySQL After October 2025”

A unique constraint specifies, one or more columns as unique it identifies. It is satisfied only when no two rows store the same non-null values at its core. A primary key constraint is a unique one that will say PRIMARY KEY in its defined way. It is satisfied only when rows unfold, and none may […]

When we run databases in Kubernetes, we quickly learn one important truth: things will fail, and we need to be prepared for this. Pods are ephemeral; nodes can come and go, storage is abstracted behind PersistentVolumes and can be either local to a node or backed by network storage, and Kubernetes moves workloads as needed […]

Where We Are We can all agree that the MySQL ecosystem isn’t in great shape right now. Take a look at Julia’s blog post [Analyzing the Heartbeat of the MySQL Server: A Look at Repository Statistics], which confirms what many of us have felt: Oracle isn’t as committed to MySQL and its ecosystem as it […]

The MySQL database server is a foundational component of the open-source world. While its impact is undeniable, looking at the raw statistics of its core source code repository reveals a dynamic and sometimes surprising development history. By analyzing the total lines of code inserted, the number of commits over the years, and unique contributors, we […]

In a recent post, The Quirks of Index Maintenance in Open Source Databases, I compared the IO load generated by open source databases while inserting rows in a table with many secondary indexes. Because of its change buffer, InnoDB was the most efficient solution. However, that’s not the end of the story. Evolution of the […]

Data masking lets you hide sensitive fields (emails, credit-card numbers, job titles, etc.) while keeping data realistic for reporting, support, or testing. It is particularly useful when you collaborate with external entities and need to share your data for development reasons. You also need to protect your data and keep your customers’ privacy safe. Last […]