For the first time made public on May 23, 1995, MySQL is open-source database software. It is among the many and growing family of open-source software including Linux, Apache, and programming languages PHP and Perl. Anyhow, unlike other open source products wherein the owners of the copyright are the individual authors or distributors, MySQL is promoted by a single for-profit firm, MySQL AB, that also owns the copyright to the entire codebase.
The development and maintenance of the system, selling support, service contracts, and proprietary-licensed copies of MySQL, everything is managed by a single entity.
Various Versions of MySQL
In order to install the MySQL server in our system, first of all, we should select the version plus the distribution format to apply. You have two methods for installing the MySQL server – Primary one is Development Release, where it presents the most recent features but not advised to be used in the production. The second one is General Availability Release (GA), which explicates a stable or, production release and fundamentally applicable for production. So, a user has to agree to choose the most recent GA release.
In order to work with MySQL, the most recent support is version number v5.8 that encompasses several critical changes, including addition and removal of new features, bugs fixing, together with security issues among others. This specific version includes the release history from MySQL 8.0 to MySQL 8.0.21. So, the support is available from April’2018 to April’2026.
If you compare versions in MySQL you will find some new features added in MySQL 8.0 like:
Data Dictionary: It comprises the transactional data dictionary to help information storing about the database objects. The older versions stored data in metadata files and non-transactional tables.
Atomic DDL Statement: Elaborately defined as Atomic Data Definition Language statement it merges storage engine operations, data dictionary updates, and binary log related to a DDL operation, all into one single atomic transaction.
Security and account management: Several enhancements added to fortify the security plus architectural enhancement to help with greater DBA flexibility in account management.
Resource Management: When you compare versions in MySQL, you notice that 8.0 enables the creation and support of resource groups, assigns threads to a specific group so that it can execute as per the resource available for the group. Group attributes are capable of controlling its resource expenditure by threads in the group.
Summing Up
The uses of MySQL are apparently countless and for a business the information collected is invaluable.
