MariaDB, the open-source database management system (DBMS) and MySQL fork, may soon be replacing MySQL in the Fedora Linux distribution. Since Fedora is also the testbed for Red Hat‘s market-leading Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), this move may lead to major changes in the Linux DBMS world.

Jaroslav Reznik, who is Red Hat’s Fedora project manager, proposed the change. Reznik explained that he was suggesting this move because, “The original company behind MySQL, MySQL AB, were bought out by Sun which was then bought by Oracle. Recent changes made by Oracle indicate they are moving the MySQL project to be more closed. They are no longer publishing any useful information about security issues (CVEs), and they are not providing complete regression tests any more, and a very large fraction of the mysql bug database is now not public.”

Red Hat and Oracle have also long been squabbling on other grounds. Oracle’s house-brand of Linux, Oracle Linux, is little more than a RHEL clone.

Fedora Linux considering switching out MySQL for MariaDB. More >