MySQL 5.0 Released

MySQL 5.0 was just released for production use. I've been using MySQL for a recent project, and I must say that I have been pretty impressed. The latest version adds support for triggers, views, cursors, stored procs, etc., reducing the number of "big" missing features from MySQL by a bit. The thing that has most impressed me about MySQL so far is the tool support. Usually, when you work with OpenSource products, you get some inferior, thrown together piece of crap or some command line only admin option. However, in the case of MySQL, you have a ton of great tools with UIs that are much better than the current generation of MS SQL tools IMO. There is also a tool that I had a chance to use that is far superior to anything Microsoft offers when converting databases (MySQL Migration Toolkit). It takes existing SQL Server, Oracle, Access, etc. databases and will not only construct the matching schema and create the tables in MySQL, but will also import your existing data. I used this to transfer an existing SQL Server DB and it worked insanely well.

In any case, MySQL has definately managed to grab my attention. I'm not completely sold yet, but I am definately impressed. MySQL has come a long way.

3 Comments

  • I agree

    Recently I have been introduced to mysql also, and I am pretty impressed.

    The admin stuff, that they provide is very high quality. I have yet to try and do odbc from mysql to sql server, but I have tried odbc from sql server to mysql and it is pretty cumbersome to updates/inserts.

  • mysql is scares microsoft... it just might supplant sql server's dominance in the "desktop" client space, and possibly for medium volume websites.

  • Yes, if I was Microsoft, I would be very scared of MySQL. After playing with it, there are a lot of neat features that you can't get in MS SQL, and it is a lot cheaper. MSDE 2005 is a step in the right direction for MS, but the 4 GB database size limit is a little too restrictive IMO (at least for the project I am using this for).

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