To prove that it has the best intentions for the database system

Apr 14, 2010 14:36 GMT  ·  By

One of the major issues in Oracle’s delayed and disputed acquisition of Sun Microsystems was MySQL. The European Commission anti-trust watchdog blocked the acquisition for several months as it investigated the impact the sale would have on the database market. It finally gave the go-ahead and Oracle completed the acquisition earlier this year. Now, the company is trying to show that there’s nothing to worry about, it cares about MySQL as much as Sun did and it is trying to drive the point home with the release of the latest MySQL 5.5 beta.

From a technical point of view, the biggest update is the switch to InnoDB as the default storage engine in MySQL. Interestingly enough, the technology is also owned by Oracle. The company says that it’s twice as fast the other options in some cases and more reliable. However, Oracle claims that users will have the same choices as they always had and nothing will be imposed.

“Most customers who are running applications, especially production applications, they use InnoDB, but InnoDB was not the default storage engine,” Oracle’s Chief Corporate Architect, Edward Screven, told eWeek. “So now it’s going to be built-in as the default engine. We’re still going to support MyISam of course… but by default, they will use InnoDB.”

However, with the release Oracle has also made some of its intentions with MySQL clearer. It looks like the software giant wants to position the database system as a competitor to Microsoft’s offerings on its own home territory, Windows. It also plans to put more effort into the Enterprise edition, but it says that the code base will remain in sync between versions. Still, it’s too early to say what will happen to MySQL. Most developers should be a little less wary of Oracle’s intentions, but there are plenty who still believe MySQL can’t thrive under the corporation’s tutelage.