All About MySQL

The MySQL database is an extremely fast, stable, open source, database with over 4 million installations around the world. In fact it is the most popular open source database in the world. One major point makes it unlike other open source databases, MySQL has a corporate side (MySQL AB). MySQL AB is a working corporation founded in 1995 it continues to develop upgrades to the software along with the open source community. Through its corporate structure and partner network, MySQL offers training, consulting and support for its users.
Major corporations such as Yahoo!, Cisco, NASA, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Google, Silicon Graphics, HP, Xerox and Sony Pictures rely on MySQL for heavy-duty, mission-critical applications. MySQL will be found predominantly used in the L.A.M.P. (Linux Apache MySQL PHP or Perl) model.
MySQL is a Relational DataBase Mangement System (RDBMS) that is great for energizing a Web site, managing personal data, or any of the everyday uses of a database.
MySQL is hugely popular within Web-based communities that use Open Source products and can be considered the de facto standard, database software, in this space. One reason could be that it is a real solution, appealing to various kinds of database users and administrators.
Another reason for MySQL’s success is that it is widely accessible. The Gnu Public License (GPL) is a standard licensing agreement for participating in open source software. It dictates that software (in this case, MySQL) can be used at no cost, as long as any source code containing the GPL product is also made available under GPL.
This does not mean that if MySQL is used as part of an application the application’s source code must be released. This is necessary only if the MySQL code is required for the application to function, or if the RDBMS is distributed with the software application.
Because of this many companies using MySQL choose to privately license the software anyway to keep their application source code closed. Private licenses can be acquired on a per-database server basis, starting at $200 for a single unit (or less, if there are a huge number of users).
Why use MySQL?
Many people look to MySQL as a low cost alternative to other databases. There are literally hundreds of tools and applications that work with MySQL many of them at low or no cost to the consumer.
A commercial license of the MySQL server costs approx. $440, while other databases can cost as much as $50,000 for a single processor server. There are many situations when purchasing a license is not required. If a company does not distribute the MySQL Software in any way, it can freely use it for powering its applications, whether the application is under GPL or other OSI.
After using the product most users continue to use it over the long term. Now more than ever it is seen that large applications are ported to MySQL from other databases. The most popular reason cited is the considerable money saved on licensing fees.
The database itself supports a broad subset of the ANSI SQL 99 syntax, along with extra extensions such as the REPLACE statement and the LIMIT clause for SELECT and DELETE. In other words, it adheres to a standard and has other additional functions to help programmers.
Who’s using MySQL under GPL?
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One of the most frequent gripes about MySQL is that it does not completely conform (i.e. 100%) to the ANSI SQL99 standard , but then having said that, seemingly no one database system conforms to ANSI SQL99 a 100%.
Standards aside, MySQL is designed tobe developer-friendly and easy to use. Additionally, it continues to grow and mature, maintaining its appeal to existing users, and continuously expanding its user base, with ever-increasing sales success.Measures have been taken to improve accessibility to the MySQL database engine, with the introduction of a graphical user interface MySQLCC (i.e. The MySQL Command Center) available at mysql.com, support for user-defined table types, and a published API (MySQL++). With these and other features, MySQL’s popularity is justified and it appeals to a wide range of users.
MySQL is ideally suited for PHP, Perl, Python, and Pascal developers due to syntax support that is familiar to those languages. If the technical skills exist in the organization of adoption, take advantage of having access to the source code of MySQL to ensure that MySQL does whatever is required of it.
If the organization is just getting into DBMS, (perhaps having worked with compilers and flat files before), MySQL does nicely. It’s widely supported, supports forgiving syntax, and has decent error messaging. The manual is accurate and up to date, and, again, a variety of GUIs are available to interact with MySQL, including MySQLCC, phpMyAdmin, MySQLdb and many more.
MySQL is geared towards SELECTING and UPDATING data over INSERTING and DELETING. It is a good choice for data storage and reference, but it is not necessarily the best for creating and deleting tables on the fly. For the Web, it is almost perfect for tracking users and creating dynamic pages on the fly.
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