Re: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools

Hi, I don't use dbs much, but I thought that you might find it interesting that Slackware is ditching MySQL in favor of MariaDB.

From the Slackware site:

From today's Slackware -current ChangeLog: The big news here is the removal of MySQL in favor of MariaDB. This shouldn't really be a surprise on any level. The poll on LQ showed a large majority of our users were in favor of the change. It's my belief that the MariaDB Foundation will do a better job with the code, be more responsive to security concerns, and be more willing to work with the open source community. And while I don't think there is currently any issue with MySQL's licensing of the community edition for commercial uses, several threads on LQ showed that there is confusion about this, whereas with MariaDB the freedom to use the software is quite clear. Thanks are due to Heinz Wiesinger for his work on transitioning the build script, testing, and getting us all behind this move. He's been working with MariaDB (and their developers) for several years now. Vincent Batts also had a hand in the early discussions here -- he met Daniel Bartholomew of MariaDB on a train last year and got a copy of the source to play with to pass the time on the journey (ah, the miracle of thumbdrives :), and was impressed with not only MariaDB itself, but also with the welcome that Slackware was getting. We expect they'll be responsive to any concerns we have. In the vast majority of situations, MariaDB is entirely compatible with existing MySQL databases and will drop right in with no changes required. There's an article available outlining the areas in which MariaDB differs from MySQL that I'd recommend reading: https://kb.askmonty.org/v/mariadb-versus-mysql-compatibility/

You can see how to use it with perl, at connecting to Maria DB with Perl

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Comment on Re: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools

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Re^2: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools by erix (Prior) on Dec 22, 2013 at 13:20 UTC
Although your reply is not really a recommendation (fortunately), I cannot resist to place this comparison here. FWIW. Look at the "Specifications" (=features) for each of the systems. That lack of features is probably accurate. MariaDB is a young (2007 ?), under-duresse derivative of an already problematically weak system (MySQL), and consequently derives its following mainly from the ranks of the mysql-encumbered (such as, apparently, SlackWare). Greenfield projects can/should do better. update: fixed link.	[reply]
Re^3: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools by Shuraski (Scribe) on Dec 22, 2013 at 19:14 UTC
The Greenfield projects link doesn't go anywhere useful except a wikipedia search page.	[reply]
Re^3: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools by mbethke (Hermit) on Dec 23, 2013 at 17:05 UTC
Although your reply is not really a recommendation (fortunately), I cannot resist to place this comparison here. FWIW. Sorry, but that's a crock of shit. MariaDB can only not run unprivileged? PostgreSQL is not open source? MariaDB supports ACID but no referential integrity? If one system supports one datatype that is equivalent to a dozen types of the other's, that counts as negative? I suppose this is auto-generated by a necessarily shoddy parser from marketing blurb and nobody with an ounce of a clue has even glanced at it.	[reply]
Re^4: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools by erix (Prior) on Dec 23, 2013 at 18:06 UTC
I'm not sufficiently interested in such lists to look up all details, but I did look up that "running as root", and it does seem possible (maybe even usual/normal, who knows) to run MariaDB as root. Postgres will simply refuse, period. That's a Pg-plus, I would say. I don't see that that list claims that postgresql is not opensource. Which is good, because if anything, it's more open (the "PostgreSQL Licence" is practically the same as FreeBSD/MIT licenses). That's a Pg-plus, I would say. Referential Integrity is a painful subject in mysql-land. Maybe it has improved. I'm sceptical. But it is all really beside the point. The point is that a relatively new system (derived from a somewhat inferior system) is not going to catch up with postgres with its long-term focus on stability, reliability, and standard compliance (to name a few) any time soon, IMHO.	[reply]
Re^5: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools by mbethke (Hermit) on Dec 23, 2013 at 22:47 UTC
Re^2: Returning to Perl, seeking advice on modern DB and format tools by Shuraski (Scribe) on Dec 22, 2013 at 19:10 UTC
FWIW, this isn't a Slackware-specific move, but is part of a general trend away from inclusion of Oracle-supported MySQL in many Linux distros. Arch Linux has already done this, and last I heard the move was afoot in Debian and Ubuntu as well. To answer the OP, yes DBI is a great interface for either Postgres or MySQL or MariaDB.	[reply]