MariaDB

MariaDB

Developer(s)	MariaDB plc, MariaDB Foundation
Initial release	29 October 2009; 14 years ago (2009-10-29)[1]
Stable release	11.4.2[2]  / 30 May 2024; 2 months ago (30 May 2024)
Repository	github.com/MariaDB/server
Written in	C, C++, Perl, Bash
Operating system	Linux, Windows, macOS[3]
Available in	English
Type	RDBMS
License	GPLv2, LGPLv2.1 (client libraries)[4]
Website	mariadb.com (MariaDB plc) mariadb.org (MariaDB Foundation)

MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported fork of the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), intended to remain free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Development is led by some of the original developers of MySQL, who forked it due to concerns over its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2009.^[5]

MariaDB is intended to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, with exact matching with MySQL APIs and commands, allowing it in many cases to function as a drop-in replacement for MySQL. However, new features are diverging.^[6] It includes new storage engines like Aria, ColumnStore, and MyRocks.

Its lead developer/CTO is Michael "Monty" Widenius, one of the founders of MySQL AB and the founder of Monty Program AB. On 16 January 2008, MySQL AB announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Sun Microsystems for approximately $1 billion. The acquisition completed on 26 February 2008. Sun was then bought the following year by Oracle Corporation. MariaDB is named after Widenius' younger daughter, Maria. (MySQL is named after his other daughter, My.)^[7]