On Tuesday, May 26, 2026 6:58:48 AM Mountain Standard Time Thomas Goirand wrote: > On 5/16/26 6:10 AM, Otto Kekäläinen wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > I want to start a discussion about dismantling the > > default-mysql-server and default-mysql-client virtual packages for > > Forky (Debian 14), and transitioning the archive to point explicitly > > to mariadb-server and mariadb-client. > > > > To be clear: this change is proposed strictly for Forky and won't > > affect any older or currently supported stable releases. > > > > With the recent releases of MySQL 9.7 and MariaDB 12.3, there is now > > enough divergence between the two codebases to warrant dismantling > > this metapackage. Their SQL dialects, authentication methods and other > > features have drifted to the point where treating them as > > interchangeable drop-in alternatives under a single virtual package is > > becoming misleading. We have already seen this friction for example in > > the Perl ecosystem had to split into libdbd-mysql-perl and > > libdbd-mariadb-perl because the underlying drivers can no longer > > support both engines. > > > > It is also evident that the broader open source ecosystem has shifted > > from MySQL to MariaDB in the past decade as newer MySQL versions are > > not getting traction. For example, according to WordPress.org usage > > statistics[1], MySQL 8.4 has only managed a 7% share two years after > > its April 2024 release, while the more recent MariaDB 11.8 already has > > a 13% share - nearly double the traction in half the time. Those stats > > also show MariaDB's overall share is now over 60%. Also note that for > > MySQL, the majority is still on versions 5.7 or 8.0, which both are > > now EOL and their share is likely to drop soon. > > > > Many prominent open source projects also recommend MariaDB over MySQL > > (e.g. Nextcloud [2],Mediawiki [3]). Despite pledges from the > > community, Oracle hasn't shown any signs of being a better open source > > steward, the commit activity is decreasing [4], and no new commits > > have been published for the main branch in the past 5 months. > > > > If you look at the Debian Popcon graph for mysql-server versions [5], > > it shows that users installing MySQL in derivatives or from > > third-party repos are becoming increasingly rare. When comparing > > directly MySQL vs MariaDB in popcon it is also very obvious that > > interest for MySQL is vaining rapidly [6]. > > > > By announcing this abstraction as deprecated now, we give maintainers > > plenty of time to update their Depends and Build-Depends to point > > explicitly to MariaDB. The whole metapackage can be removed once zero > > packages depend on it in Forky+1 or +2. Users who require Oracle MySQL > > can continue to use third-party repositories, but our archive > > packaging should honestly reflect what Debian actually ships and > > supports in main. > > > > Let me know if you see any concrete blockers for your packages. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Otto > > Can you confirm that no application will be compatible with one or the > other? Like, will my applications stop working with mysql, somehow? > > If not, I don't see the point.
Seeing as how their APIs are now divergent, if any application uses the part of the API that is not identical, it will have problems. Over time, I would expect that the percentage of the API that diverges will increase. -- Soren Stoutner [email protected]
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