Well Dang… I always felt Oracles ‘purchase’ of Sun and thus MySQL will eventually have a negative effect on MySQL. I started to feel that today when I couldn’t download the new version of MySQL Workbench without signing up as an Oracle Developer… Then I started reading the MySQL Wikipedia page about the history and what it going on with licensing and specifically the “Legal and Acquisition Impacts” – which brought me to MariaDB. At some point in the next decade, we’re going to see a transition from MySQL to MariaDB in the popular Open Source projects. Here’s some additional information about MariaDB.

MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL.

MariaDB strives to be the logical choice for database professionals looking for a robust, scalable, and reliable SQL server. To accomplish this, Monty Program works to hire the best and brightest developers in the industry, work closely and cooperatively with the larger community of users and developers in the true spirit of Free and open source software, and release software in a manner that balances predictability with reliability.

Here are some important resources to get you started. All links will redirect you to external sites, noted in parentheses.

MariaDB vs. MySQL – Features
MariaDB vs. MySQL – Compatibility
MariaDB Success Stories
Contributing to the MariaDB Project
More About MariaDB
MariaDB and the community

https://mariadb.org/