Enterprise applications Toolkit

'Most important ever' MySQL reaches beta

Published: 29 Mar 2005 12:55 BST

A beta of the next major version of open source database MySQL was released on Monday and includes supports for a number of features that could appeal to corporate users.

David Axmark, a co-founder of MySQL, told ZDNet UK that all the enterprise functionality that MySQL has lacked in the past have been added to MySQL 5.0.

"People have been criticising MySQL since we started [in 1995] for not having stored procedures, triggers and views," said Axmark. "We're fixing 10 years of criticism in one release."

"It's the most important release we've ever done in the company," Axmark added.

MySQL is the most widely used open source database, according to a Evans Data Corporation survey released in January. It accounted for 40 percent of open source database deployments, while Firebird and PostgreSQL accounted for 39 percent and 11 percent of deployments respectively.

Axmark believes this number will increase when the final version of MySQL 5.0 is released this summer.

"I believe it will change how MySQL is perceived in the market," said Axmark, who then added that he thought this release would make MySQL an option for at least ten times as many users as before.