Hi!
I may be a little based, but here is some input regarding this. >> Good morning. >> Recently, we presented MySQL as a database option for a website that >> we might be working on. We've used it as our database in the past and >> we plan on using it in the future as possible. >> With that said, I confess I don't have as intimate a >> knowledge of mySQL >> to address some of the things in the email that was sent to >> me. I'd like >> to hear what some of you have to say/think about this. I know some >> of the things said below aren't entirely correct, but I'm not >> 100% sure >> about some of the others. >> >> --Begin Quote-- >> >> MySQL - as I said at our meeting, we would not be comfortable >> with this >> as an enterprise strength solution. MySQL is unsupported freeware MySQL is developed by a company, MySQL AB, who have been providing commercial support for MySQL since 1996. MySQL AB has the full copyright of the core server, who is mainly developed by it. A lot of tools and API's around are provided by the MySQL users around the world. >> and lacks enterprise management functionality. I agree that MySQL doesn't yet have all the nice admin GUI's that you can find for some of the other commercial big players, but MySQL is one the other hand much easier to manage, so there is much less need for these. There is a lot of administrative command tools for MySQL available that allows one to monitor and work with MySQL. >> It has a small >> limited feature >> set compared to ORACLE, DB/2 and is lacking the functionality >> to support >> data replication and has little capability for generating >> management info. MySQL supports replication since more than one year back (and you don't have to pay extra to get this :) You can find a quite complete feature comparison table at: http://www.mysql.com/information/crash-me.php You will notice that MySQL has most of the features that you will need for most projects. It has also a lot of unique features that makes it extremely suitable for web and logging applications, but this doesn't mean that MySQL isn't suitable for other applications as well. I agree that we don't support everything that Oracle and DB/2 does, but the things we support we do very well and we are closing the gap the whole time. We have always tried to avoid 'bloat' the server with features that only a few people seldom need... >> There are question marks around the scalability of the >> product. MySQL is typically much faster than Oracle and DB/2, something MySQL users have discovered over and over again. http://www.mysql.com/information/benchmarks.html (We will on this page soon have results from new multi-user benchmark that will contain a lot of new interesting data). If your application have a need for hard database speed, you can usually get much better performance with MySQL than you can with either Oracle or DBI/2 on the same hardware. (I have to say usually, as there is always exceptions for the rule; One database can't be better in every tests, something our benchmarks shows quite clearly..) >> I'm not >> sure of the locking algorithms used (whether row level or >> record level) - MySQL has a sophisticated handler concept which allows the user to choose different backends for different tables. With this you can choose between table locks, page locks, row locks or versioning (no locks at all). For example, if you are using InnodB tables, the locking algorithm used is very similar to what Oracle provides in their high end servers. >> the fact that it is not generally used in multi-user solutions MySQL is the most used open source database and is generally used in multi-user environments. You can find a lot of user stores that proves this on http://www.mysql.com. >> is a good enough indication that this is not accepted database technology for >> industrial-strength multi-user systems. I can only say that our customer base proves otherwise :) Just take a look in our email archive and check the email addresses from people that is on the MySQL mailing lists.. >> The fact that it is unsupported freeware would mean that an >> end user would >> potentially be "held to ransom" by a DBA with specific >> knowledge. I think the argument here is the wrong way. Thanks to being an open source database with millions of users, you are much likely to get someone that can help you with ANY problems with MySQL than you can with Oracle or DBI/2. There is also many knowledgeable MySQL DBI's available for hire. With a closed source product, you are hold ransome for every single bug in their database; If you happen to come across some of these, you are totally depended on the commercial company to get this fixed. You are also hold ransome for the performance the database can deliver, without any change to get this fixed. With MySQL you can always hire a developer to fix the bug, if you don't get it solved by MySQL AB (a thing that is not likely to happen; We have a clean track record when it comes to fixing bugs, something most people on this mailing list should be able to verify). With MySQL, there is also a big community that can help you, in the case where you can't afford to pay for support. >> The mySQL >> security model is also not sufficiently developed for any system that >> involves money. MySQL today provides a sophisticated permission model with gives you a lower granularity of access to individual table columns than with most other databases. MySQL 4.0 also supports secure SSH connections (With MySQL 3.23 you have to create an ssh tunnel yourself). Currently the features MySQL doesn't support, regarding this, are views and crypted databases. In many cases a crypted file system is a good workaround to solving the second problem. There is a also a lot of banks and some stock exchanges that are using MySQL. >> I would not be prepared to sign-off any solution containing mySQL. I would, but I am just a simple developer who happens to have all the facts available :) I am not saying that MySQL is the best database for ANY application. On the other hand, I know that for many applications MySQL is a perfectly good choose, and much better than all the alternatives. >> --End Quote-- >> >> I'd love to get your input. >> >> Thank you for your time and your knowledge. >> >> Chris Regards, Monty -- For technical support contracts, goto https://order.mysql.com/ __ ___ ___ ____ __ / |/ /_ __/ __/ __ \/ / Mr. Michael Widenius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> / /|_/ / // /\ \/ /_/ / /__ MySQL AB, CTO /_/ /_/\_, /___/\___\_\___/ Helsinki, Finland <___/ www.mysql.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Before posting, please check: http://www.mysql.com/manual.php (the manual) http://lists.mysql.com/ (the list archive) To request this thread, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, e-mail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Trouble unsubscribing? Try: http://lists.mysql.com/php/unsubscribe.php
