Jaslabs: High performance Software

By Justin Silverton

In a recent article, I wrote about how mysql will no longer provide binaries for windows. This isn’t true. In a recent article Here, the full story is explained:

“Contrary to some reports in the community, MySQL will continue providing binaries both for Windows and other operating systems. All our download pages, including those for MySQL 5.0, have binaries today, and will continue to have them.

The source-only releases we introduced with 5.0.33 (and will continue to provide in the future)are just in addition to the binary-and-source releases. The current latest binary-and-source MySQL Community Server release is 5.0.27, and I expect MySQL 5.0.35 Community Server to be released as binary-and-source within a month, both for Windows and our other platforms. This is as we always planned it, and tried to communicate it. I am sorry our communication has not been clear enough. “

Here is part of the original post/announcement: “We refer to our reference manual, especially the chapter 2.4.14. MySQL Installation Using a Source Distribution when it comes to building MySQL Community Server. At the same time, I want to point out that the service of providing MySQL Enterprise Server binaries is something we do for our paying customers, in the form of the MySQL Enterprise Server subscription, starting at 595 dollars a year”

The Enterprise edition of mysql will not have the binaries available without purchase, but the community edition will still have the latest source and binaries available in future releases. Also of note is that the next release of the mysl community edition that will have binaries available is 5.0.35.

By Justin silverton

In a recent decision by the people over at mysql, the latest community (Open source) edition of the database system will no longer be available for download in binary form (it looks like both windows and linux binaries are still on 5.27 and the lastest is 5.33). This means that if you want to use the latest version, you will have to have the following installed on your system to first compile it from source:

• Visual Studio .Net 2003 (7.1) compiler system




• Between 3GB and 5GB disk space.




• Windows XP, Windows 2000 or higher.

Another interesting statement found here says the following:

“Providing and verifying binaries is a paid-for service for those who want to spent money to save time”

It looks like if you want the official binaries, you need to pay to download them. It appears that mysql is starting to make it harder and harder to use their software without paying a licensing fee.

By Justin Silverton

In a recent announcement:

“MySQL has today refined its licensing scheme from “GPLv2 or later” to “GPLv2 only“, in order to make it an option, not an obligation for the company to move to GPLv3.

Specifically, this means that copyright notice in the MySQL source code files will change from referring to “either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version” to “version 2” only, in the MySQL 5.0 and MySQL 5.1 code bases”

Mysql is one of the best examples of a successful open source project and it is used by many businesses and people around the Internet.

If the FSF wants free software to be widely supported and used by the masses (which seems to be one of their main goals), they need to start looking more at the needs of businesses (which may actually get us better driver support for linux).

Although the FSF is still in the drafting process of the GPLV3,   there are still some big changes that will most likely make it to the final version:

• GPL software can is not compatible with digital rights managements (DRM)
• Patents cannot be used to make free software non-free
• If your work communicates with an online service, it must be possible for modified versions to communicate with the same online service in the same way such that the service cannot distinguish

more information can be found here

A more restrictive license is not the answer.  This will make businesses think twice before deciding to use or contribute to free software. 

By Justin Silverton

Mysql 5.1 beta has recently been released.  It is only a beta (and should not be used in a production environment), but it does show us some of the new features that will appear in future, stable, releases:

By Justin Silverton

Mysql is the most popular open source database server right now.  It is used by large enteprise level companies and small, single websites.  There are countless numbers of books on the subject and many people claim it is better than the rest (microsoft, postgres)…but is it actually better?  My goal here is to find out, based on Internet research, if mysql actually does outperform the other commercial and open source database systems.

Mysql 5.0 vs. Microsoft SQL 2005

Features

• Mysql 5.X now offers support for cursors, complete views, and stored procedures.  However, Foreign Key support is still in its early stages.
• SQL 2005 has native support for xml, multi-dimensional data querying, and Visual Studio .net integration.

Cost

• Microsoft provides a free license for development use.  $1400 for a commercial license.
• Mysql is free ($0) for commercial and non-commerical use.  It is also possible to purchase a commerical license (to get around the GPL license) for $400.

Performance

• Mysql: MyISAM database table type uses less space and memory.  Innodb and NDB clusters also now use 20% less space (new to 5.0).
• SQL 2005: needs more disk storage and memory requirements.

Replication

• Mysql: One way replication using a binary log, which can easily be replicated to multile machines.
• SQL 2005: Multiple forms of replication (snapshot,transactional, and merge), which are more complex and offers a  greater degrees of flexibility.

 Recovery

• SQL 2005: Very robust.  There are multiple failsafes in place to prevent data loss.  New features in this version also allow rapid restoration and data protection.
• Mysql: Falls very short in this respect.  An unexpected shutdown of your server can cause data loss.

Reference: http://www.tometasoftware.com/MySQL-5-vs-Microsoft-SQL-Server-2005.asp

Mysql 5.x vs. Postgres 8.x

Postgres and mysql are both open source and supported by a community of users.  Postgres is a little more difficult to find information about (most statistics are from older versions of postgres).

Postgres Advantages

• Stored procedures, Triggers, and a large set of built-in functions (including many functions for date manipulation) (many more features than mysql).
• Procedural language is pretty easy to learn if you know Oracle’s PL/SQL.

Postgres Disadvantages

• Even though it has more features, because it is not as popular or mainstreamed as mysql, postgres is at a disadvantage. 

Some Links on the subject (some have comparisons with older versions of postgres/mysql):

• http://www.wlug.org.nz/PostgresVsMysql (chart detailing supported features)
• http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mysql/article.php/3288951
• http://www-css.fnal.gov/dsg/external/freeware/pgsql-vs-mysql.html

Conclusion

Even though many commercial databases have more features than mysql, I still feel that it is a viable solution for most web applications and sites.  Most scalability issues can be solved using a caching soluton called memcached (http://www.danga.com/memcached/).  Future versions of mysql should concentrate on improving Data protection and recovery.

Also, because of it’s large acceptance on the Internet and in many web communities, it makes it a more practical  solution than other open source databases such as postgres.