Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#1

Post by occam65 » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 1:42 AM UTC

As far as I've come to understand it, MariaDB is a fork of MySQL from the original author, is better maintained, and faster. To take it even further, it practically works as a drop-in replacement of MySQL. Why do developers continue to start new projects using MySQL, and why aren't they busy migrating existing projects to Maria?

Is there a drawback to Maria that I'm not aware of?

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#2

Post by eudoxus » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 1:50 AM UTC

From what I can tell it just takes sometime for awareness and adoption to occur. This is especially the case for people coming from the long trusted MySQL. Basically it's not so much that there is something wrong with Maria, just attachment to the firmiliar.

Just my 2¢

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#3

Post by unclebucknasty » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 2:00 AM UTC

I think it also comes down to the fact that many hosting providers (including cloud providers like AWS) offer up MySQL-imaged machines, with back-up and other processes around that.

So, on the dev front, I'm going to be inclined to stick with MySQL on my local dev machine, knowing that I'm also deploying to MySQL in production. Even if MariaDB is designed as a drop-in replacement, there can be differences between the two that impact how code runs. This is especially true when one (MariaDB) is updated more frequently.

I'm sure I can roll my own MariaDB server on an EC2 machine vs going with RDS, then also migrate my dev machine to MariaDB as well. But, I've just not seen a compelling reason to undertake that effort as of yet.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#4

Post by b_chicago » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 2:24 AM UTC

It seems like the Wikimedia article has turned more people on to MariaDB - but what about Percona? I'm ignorant about the differences. Does anyone have a good 3-way comparison?

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#5

Post by jacob019 » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 2:42 AM UTC

I tried MariaDB a couple years ago, started having some terrible problems where the server would hang and require a restart after which I had corruption. MySQL 5.5 has been rock solid.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#6

Post by snowwrestler » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 2:51 AM UTC

The drawback to MariaDB is that it is an unknown. If someone has experienced success with MySQL, then they know they can succeed in the future with MySQL. It's one less thing to worry about.

To consider trying something new, they would need to expect a big improvement. That's not really what MariaDB promises.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#7

Post by johnny22 » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 2:53 AM UTC

many distributions are switching to mariadb by default in the current or next versions. Fedora, Arch, and OpenSUSE for example.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#8

Post by execat » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 3:10 AM UTC

People don't know any better.

Even today I have people asking me 'how to install OpenOffice on Fedora'. They complain how the yum commands they found on a 5 year old guide do not work anymore. Then they go and search for an OpenOffice RPM, which they do find, and then complain how bad Linux system is.

Granted that office suites are generally end-user whereas databases are developers, I can't see my college's system admin installing MariaDB the same way I can't see my college teaching MongoDB.

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#9

Post by cmccabe » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 3:15 AM UTC

It's for the same reason they use MySQL instead of Postgres.

Hey, as Scott Adams would say, "at least there's a reason"! http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2000-02-13/

Re: Ask HN: Why do people still use MySQL over MariaDB?

#10

Post by cmccabe » Wed, Apr 24, 2013, 3:15 AM UTC

It's for the same reason they use MySQL instead of Postgres.

Hey, as Scott Adams would say, "at least there's a reason"! http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2000-02-13/