Alternative to MySQL

candyman · 2016-09-20 12:40:50

Reading technical stuff by Stef, I’ve discovered Percona.
I already knew MariaDB.
This in an interesting caomparaison article for beginners.

Someone here use some alternative to MySQL with Textpattern?
What are the advantages? This is stuff for expert only or also the newbie can think about the switch?

gaekwad · 2016-09-20 12:48:55

I’m a Percona user, have been for a few years. It’s a drop-in replacement for MySQL, and I was attracted to it because of its advertised query speed advantage over MySQL. For most of my Textpattern sites, it’s not even noticeable, but I use it with Magento and the sheer volume of (clumsily-written) queries do appear to have a short runtime overall than with vanilla MySQL.

I love me some PostgreSQL, but that’s for not for here.

Bloke · 2016-09-20 13:01:19

candyman wrote #301640:

What are the advantages?

Depends on your Worldview. Some say that the day MySQL was bought by Oracle, all hope was lost and it’s now a sponsored shadow of its former self. Others disagree and say it’s now stronger because it has funding. And it’s still (currently) free.

As far as I know, the MariaDB fork was a response to this move (by the original developer of MySQL), in a similar way to RedHat going ‘commercial’ and spawning Fedora. I’m unfamiliar with Percona’s exact roots, besides what’s available on Wikipedia.

Both the replacements support an enhanced storage engine that offers the ability to attain better performance and scalability (again, some disagree, and it’s not this way out of the box). They are all broadly compatible with one another as long as you stick with the core storage engines like InnoDB, Features of MySQL are generally pulled into both fairly soon after release and, I’m sure MySQL steals code and ideas from the others too. But the product lines are diverging now, meaning that compatibility is no longer guaranteed.

For my modest uses I’m perfectly happy with Percona on file-per-table InnoDB. MySQL would have been equally good, but as I now run my own hosting I was attracted by the tweakability it offers (and the fact that Pete Cooper told me it was good).

Bear in mind that Txp does not (officially at least) support either of the forks and you may run into problems upgrading old versions of Txp to use them.

This situation is changing and I intend to try and move towards more open support for these (and other) flavours of MySQL if possible, not least because they are becoming more prevalent on hosting sites.

EDIT: For full disclosure, I despise all relational databases, having cut my teeth on the incredible performance of the linked-list-based Ancelus DB, but that’s a whooooole other ball game. And definitely not free, nor compatible with MySQL. But if you ever need a revolutionary approach to data storage that can achieve almost linear scalability and do millions of transactions per second on modest desktop hardware, it cannot be beaten.

Last edited by Bloke (2016-09-20 13:08:00)

candyman · 2016-09-20 14:06:24

Many thanks for the exhaustive answer.
I was thinking about them ‘cause the promise of speed (I know, TXP is already fast ;)

michaelkpate · 2016-09-20 14:55:42

FLOSS Weekly 35: Drizzle. Guest: Brian Aker

FLOSS Weekly 194: MySQL And MariaDB. Guest: Michael Widenius

Different MySQL Forks for Different Folks

What You Need to Know About the MariaDB & Percona Forks of MySQL

Destry · 2016-09-28 19:14:34

gaekwad wrote #301641:

I love me some PostgreSQL, but that’s not for here.

I had just realized that Mac OS switched from MySQL to PostgreSQL at Lion OS X, which is why there’s no MySQL in Macs anymore. This got me thinking if I should be using Postgre for local dev so not to install unnecessary software (though I don’t know what the web host offers yet).

Why do you say “that’s not for here”? Is Postgre a bad option for Txp?

Destry · 2016-09-28 20:11:59

Poking around the dates of events, I’m reminded that Oracle acquired Sun (and MySQL) in 2010. Not sure the month. And Mac Lion came out June 2011 with PostgreSQL as the new native DB, which it has been ever since. Lol! Coincidence on those dates? I think not.

But after reading around a bit comparing postgre with mysql, and while it seems there’s quite a lot of liking for Postgre, it’s just not as popular as mysql, so finding help in communities or StackOverflow, for example, may not be as easy.

Also, it seems MySQL has gotten better faster as a result of the acquisition, not worse as so many feared. I wonder if Apple made a mistake, or are they just not taking chances with MySQL suddenly not being free anymore? I’m sure Oracle would love some Apple bucks.

Also, I keep seeing talk of Maria being a drop-in replacement for MySQL. I’m guessing that means you can substitute it for Txp without any problem, but it would be quite a different story for Postgre?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple changed DBs again at some point, but who knows.

Last edited by Destry (2016-09-28 20:15:39)

Destry · 2016-09-28 20:38:49

Not a database (though they do have one, apparently), but this Valentina DB Studio looks interesting. Works on different OS and with different flavors of DB, and “free” — though that looks to be for 24 months and through two 12-month licenses. After that? Probably want your money.

gaekwad · 2016-09-28 20:58:05

Destry wrote #301806:

Why do you say “that’s not for here”? Is Postgre a bad option for Txp?

Textpattern, at least in my situations, is slanted towards reads than writes, PostgreSQL is overkill. Read-heavy stuff isn’t really right for PostgreSQL, it’s much slower than MySQL. Those things, and bearing in mind Textpattern is still lightweight, don’t really make much sense as a package.

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#1 2016-09-20 12:40:50