[arch-general] What is Arch doing vis-a-vis MySQL v. MariaDB?

[Dan McGee]

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 8:50 AM, David C. Rankin
<drankinatty at suddenlinkmail.com> wrote:
> Guys,
>
>        Ran into a shock this morning when on one of my 2 lingering suse boxes updates
> replaced MySQL with MariaDB. After a brief bit of research, it seems that Monte
> (one of the MySQL devs) forked mysql into mariadb from the mysql code base in
> the 12/2009 timeframe when Oracle bought Sun to preserve MySQL and prevent
> against any funny business by Oracle in the future. According to statements made
> by Oracle, it is under an obligation to the EU to continue mysql largely in its
> present form and continue to enhance and make it freel available as part of the
> purchase. (See Oracle Statement):
>
> http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/042364
>
>        Suse evidently went with MariaDB and it was somewhat disconcerting to learn
> about the switch during an update. Has Arch considered what it will do in this
> situation, MariaDB?, MySQL?

Definitely wouldn't do this around here without:
1. A big news item
2. Discussion first on the arch-dev-public ML

Nor would we do this unless something really crazy changed in the
MySQL situation, which for now it doesn't appear is the case. The most
likely scenario would be packaging both and giving the users the
option of which one to go with.

-Dan