MariaDB, an open-source database management system (DBMS) and MySQL fork has been gaining inroads in enterprise software and its founders formed a foundation, the MariaDB Foundation, to promote its software.

Specifically, “the MariaDB Foundation exists to improve database technology, including standards implementation, interoperability with other databases, and building bridges to other types of database such as transactional and NoSQL. To deliver this the Foundation provides technical work in reviewing, merging, testing, and releasing the MariaDB product suite. The Foundation also provides infrastructure for the MariaDB project and the user and developer communities.”

This might strike you as much ado about nothing. What’s another DBMS in a world where Oracle owns the most popular open-source DBMS: MySQL? What makes it noteworthy is that a year after Sun brought MySQL in 2008 for a billion dollars, Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius, MySQL’s founder went his own way and started his own fork of the DBMS. Today, we know that fork as MariaDB.

Open-source MariaDB, a MySQL fork, challenges Oracle. More >