David Axmark - MySQL AB (Sweden)

MySQL: The Commercial OpenSource Database

MySQL is different from other OpenSource projects since it was started as a commercial AND OpenSource database developed by a company. Most other databases were either introduced by 'normal' proprietary commercial companies at the end of their commercial life or were the result of university research. This led to some different goals since MySQL development was driven by production users from day one.

With well over 10000 server downloads per day and an estimated 3 millions installations the MySQL Database system (TM) is one of the world's most used SQL databases.

The main benefits of using MySQL are Speed, Robustness and Usability - the three cornerstones valued by our users since Day Zero. We have since added many features, such as Replication, Transactions, Row-level Locking - always without compromising the fundamental cornerstones.

The talk will start with a short history of MySQL and then continue with an overview of MySQL including the internal stucture. Then we will continue with new features that have appeared in 4.0, and the features that will appear in 4.1 and 5.0.