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www.it-ebooks.infoC H A P T E R 25• • •Introducing MySQLThe MySQL relational database server was born almost 15 years ago out of an internal company projectby employees of the Sweden-based TcX DataKonsult AB (AB is an abbreviation for Aktiebolag, which isthe Swedish term for corporation). Their project, dubbed MySQL, was first released to the general publicat the end of 1996. The software proved so popular that in 2001 they founded a company based entirelyaround MySQL-specific service and product offerings, calling it MySQL AB. Profitable since its inception,MySQL AB grew by leaps and bounds, establishing offices in several countries, attracting substantialventure capital funding, and announcing numerous high-profile partnerships with an array of corporateheavyweights, including Red Hat, Veritas, Novell, and Rackspace. This growth culminated in thecompany’s 2008 acquisition by Sun Microsystems, which was in turn purchased by Oracle Corporationin early 2009.From the first public release, MySQL’s developers placed particular emphasis on softwareperformance and scalability. The result was a highly optimized product that was lacking in manyfeatures considered standard for enterprise database products: stored procedures, triggers, andtransactions, for example. Yet the product caught the attention of a vast number of users who were moreinterested in speed and scalability than in capabilities that would, in many cases, often go unusedanyway. Subsequent versions added these features anyway, which attracted even more users.To date, MySQL has been downloaded more than 100 million times. These users include some ofthe most widely known companies and organizations in the world, such as Yahoo!, CNET Networks,NASA, The Weather Channel, Google, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and Cisco Systems(www.mysql.com/customers). Later in this chapter, I’ll take a closer look at how a few of these users areputting MySQL to work and, in some cases, saving millions of dollars in the process.What Makes MySQL So Popular?MySQL is a relational database server that offers the same features found in competing proprietaryproducts. In other words, you won’t encounter too many surprises if you’re familiar with anotherdatabase product. Its well-known convenient pricing aside (specifically, it’s free for many uses), what isit about MySQL that makes it so popular? This section highlights some of the key features contributing toits soaring popularity. Afterward, I’ll examine the two major milestone releases of the MySQL product,namely versions 4 and 5.FlexibilityNo matter what operating system you’re running, chances are MySQL has you covered. On the MySQLWeb site, you’ll find optimized binaries available for 14 platforms: Compaq Tru64, DEC OSF, FreeBSD,IBM AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Mac OS X, Novell NetWare, OpenBSD, QNX, SCO, SGI IRIX, Solaris (versions 8, 9and 10), and Microsoft Windows. Packages are also available for Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu.477