Most Linux distributions have been defaulting to MariaDB as the default MySQL server for years. Ubuntu though has been a notable outlier still relying on Oracle MySQL for the default MySQL service. A proposal raised by an Ubuntu developer hopes to change that for Ubuntu 25.04 in the new year.

Otto Kekäläinen who is the maintainer for the MariaDB packages within Debian and Ubuntu has raised a proposal for MariaDB to replace Oracle MySQL as the default MySQL server beginning in Ubuntu 25.04.

Many other Linux distributions have already made similar moves, MariaDB continues seeing vibrant new feature development, its growth reportedly outpaces MySQL itself, MariaDB is said to be more stable, and arguing that MariaDB is faster and has more features.

So far there have been no responses to the proposal that was posted yesterday but for those interested in the prospects of Ubuntu 25.04 using MariaDB as the default in place of MySQL can read the proposal on the [1]mailing list .



[1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2024-September/043130.html