Devs begin to assess options for MySQL's future beyond Oracle
- Reference: 1769175193
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/23/mysql_post_oracle/
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At a meeting in San Francisco earlier this month, a group of interested members of the MySQL community met to discuss recent concerns about the handling of the system upon which many had built companies and careers.
Recent job losses at Oracle's MySQL core development team — the database's founding developer [1]Michael "Monty" Widenius said he was "heartbroken" on hearing the news — and a dramatically [2]falling number of commits to the project have led some to believe it is reaching a critical crossroads.
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Vadim Tkachenko previously worked for MySQL AB, the Swedish company that developed the database before it was bought by Sun Microsystems, which later merged with Oracle. Now CTO at open source consultancy Percona, Tkachenko told The Register that MySQL was at a fork in the road under Oracle's management, with the developer community now having to choose its future: either under Oracle or as part of a different model.
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Peter Zaitsev, Percona co-founder and MySQL performance expert, said Oracle's treatment of MySQL was like the metaphor of boiling a frog: the critical point for MySQL might not be understood until it is too late.
"They are moving more and more features to their cloud and enterprise software, and then they have been reducing MySQL staff, but they have not done anything drastic. The result for the MySQL community, though, is not great. It's not really getting MySQL developed to its full potential," he said.
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In response, a group of developers got together in the US to discuss potential options for the future of MySQL. The group included engineers from Percona and PlanetScale, which has built a database service around [7]Vitess , a distributed MySQL-based database.
Sam Lambert, PlanetScale co-founder and CEO, said: "MySQL is critical to the functioning of the web and powers millions of products. PlanetScale is committed to its future. We maintain our own fork of MySQL... We will always back MySQL as a technology and use our engineering resources to ensure its health. It's our hope that we can do this as part of an open and flourishing community."
The group meeting was not specifically meant for users, but more for developers who contributed code and companies built around open source MySQL. A representative from Oracle also attended, Zaitsev said.
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"I appreciate they actually did that, because it was obviously not an event where they're going to get a lot of love, so that's good they came," he said.
The options on the table were leaving the governance of MySQL with Oracle or creating a fork of the open source database for a community to develop and govern. Such a fork could either be a hard fork or a tracking fork, Zaitsev explained.
A hard fork is exemplified by MariaDB, which Widenius forked in 2009. The database remains open source, governed by a foundation, and is linked to a separate company, MariaDB plc. It has developed separately from MySQL since it was forked.
Zaitsev said Percona's Server for MySQL, which the company says offers enterprise-grade features in open source packaging, is an example of a tracking fork. "We apply certain patches, and certain other changes, but we are always tracking that [against MySQL]. A tracking fork typically brings more compatibility than a hard fork, far more compatible with MySQL compared with MariaDB," he said.
The group plans further meetings, including one focused on developers in Europe, set to be [9]held around the Open Source Conference Fosdem 26 . Fosdem is happening in Brussels over the last weekend of January. It might take further feedback before deciding the best way forward.
[10]MongoDB talks up its AI chops by talking down PostgreSQL
[11]Azure stumbles in Western Europe, Microsoft blames 'thermal event'
[12]Bun 1.3 stuffs everything and kitchen sink into JS runtime
[13]Monty Widenius 'heartbroken' at the extent of Oracle's MySQL job cuts
The open source community has a track record of wresting control of projects by forking code from vendor-associated systems. For example, the Linux Foundation launched Valkey in 2024, forking code from popular cache/database Redis. It was backed by AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson, and Snap, as well as Percona.
[14]Zaitsev said the MySQL group had spoken to major cloud vendors in the US and elsewhere, as well as smaller cloud companies.
He told us: "A lot of them have their customers [that] are feeling the pain from missing features in MySQL, like vector search for example. But I'm not going to disclose any kind of commitment before it goes official."
Whatever the outcome, it's likely there is strong feeling in the MySQL developer community that Oracle's recent approach merits a response. The Register asked Oracle to comment. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/11/oracle_slammed_for_mysql_job/
[2] https://devclass.com/2026/01/13/open-source-mysql-repository-has-no-commits-in-more-than-three-months/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aXOpM8hTaLxIF_PVcqsJZwAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXOpM8hTaLxIF_PVcqsJZwAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aXOpM8hTaLxIF_PVcqsJZwAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aXOpM8hTaLxIF_PVcqsJZwAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://github.com/vitessio/vitess
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/databases&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aXOpM8hTaLxIF_PVcqsJZwAAA1E&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://fosdem.org/2026/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/02/mongodb_postgresql_scalability/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/05/azure_thermal_event_west_europe/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/13/bun_13_full_of_features/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/11/oracle_slammed_for_mysql_job/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/18/valkey_publishes_release_candidate/
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Most of our DB needs have migrated away from MySQL to Postgres or MongoDB over the last decade anyway. Where we do have a requirement for MySQL compatibility we have used MariaDB. I know very few dev houses that are still using Oracles version of MySQL for any new projects. Its a legacy product now
This is really what I don't get.
We have been here before when Oracle bought MySQL and Monty spun out MariaDB as a direct replacement for MySQL. Every Linux distrobution I can think of, when you install or want to install MySQL you get MariaDB. Because MariaDB is the replacement .
Why then are we thinking it needs another fork? As you said, support MariaDB. That is what it is meant for. It's meant to be the replacement!!!!
I have no love for Oracle, but to be frank, they initially did a lot of work to fix longstanding bugs that the previous owners couldn't be bothered with. I'm no fan of MySQL – Postgres is in my view usually a better choice for nearly every situation – but there may be "enterprise" features that have kept people. Of course, there is also MariaDB, but that's less likely to interest commercial users looking for support.
As for the effort to gain control over the DB – I cannot see Oracle ever letting this happen – the product exists solely to allow them to cross-sell and upsell their other products.
MySQL is dead. Long live MariaDB.
We've seen this many times before. For example, when OpenOffice went to die, LibreOffice took its mantle. XLibre has taken the mantle of Xorg. Likewise, MariaDB has taken the mantle of MySQL. These things happen. Let it happen.
Re: MySQL is dead. Long live MariaDB.
The problem there is that Maria still uses MyISAM and InnoDB and Oracle is still the custodian of those.
And anyway, I don't see any reason to choose Maria or MySQL over postgres for new projects.
Oracle's recent approach merits a response.
As the Nac Mac Feegles might suggest " a good kickin' in'a fork " would be favourite.
" We willnae be fooled again ! "
Re: Oracle's recent approach merits a response.
Or as "The Who" sang, "Won't get fooled again" on "Who's Next".
Oracle is right up there with Microsoft as companies to avoid like the plague. I have to admit that I once worked for Oracle... It was not a happy time and I left after 3 months.
What we don't need is another fork of a project. Oracle is a terrible company, when it acquired MySQL everyone should have known it would eventually be the end. MariaDB handled that, go support them, don't repeat efforts for something else again.