MariaDB

MariaDB
Developer(s)MariaDB plc, MariaDB Foundation
Initial release29 October 2009; 15 years ago (2009-10-29)[1]
Stable release
11.5.2[2] Edit this on Wikidata / 14 August 2024; 3 months ago (14 August 2024)
Repository
Written inC, C++, Perl, Bash
Operating systemLinux, Windows, macOS[3]
Available inEnglish
TypeRDBMS
LicenseGPLv2, LGPLv2.1 (client libraries)[4]
Websitemariadb.com (MariaDB plc)
mariadb.org (MariaDB Foundation)

MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Development is led by some of the original developers of MySQL, who forked it due to concerns over its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2009,[5] but in 2024 MariaDB was itself bought by the K1 private equity group, which appointed a new CEO.[6]

MariaDB is intended to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, with exact matching with MySQL APIs and commands, allowing it in many cases to function as a drop-in replacement for MySQL. However, new features are diverging.[7] It includes new storage engines like Aria, ColumnStore, and MyRocks.

Its lead developer/CTO is Michael "Monty" Widenius, one of the founders of MySQL AB and the founder of Monty Program AB. On 16 January 2008, MySQL AB announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Sun Microsystems for approximately $1 billion. The acquisition completed on 26 February 2008. Sun was then bought the following year by Oracle Corporation. MariaDB is named after Widenius' younger daughter, Maria. (MySQL is named after his other daughter, My.)[8]

  1. ^ "MariaDB 5.1.38 Release Notes". MariaDB KnowledgeBase. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  2. ^ "MariaDB 11.5.2 Release Notes".
  3. ^ ""Download MariaDB"". Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  4. ^ "MariaDB License". MariaDB KnowledgeBase.
  5. ^ "Dead database walking: MySQL's creator on why the future belongs to MariaDB - MariaDB, open source, mysql, Oracle". Computerworld. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  6. ^ Acquisition
  7. ^ "MariaDB versus MySQL - Compatibility". MariaDB KnowledgeBase. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  8. ^ "Why is the project called MariaDB?". MariaDB KnowledgeBase. Retrieved 17 September 2014.