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I have often wondered why MySQL has become so popular. Any ideas why? Are there specific reasons behind its success? (Please keep answers analytical)

Shaun
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Michael Younkin
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  • I think your question makes sense what you are comparing it with. Some other database solution like Oracle? Not using databases at all? –  Jan 24 '11 at 05:57

6 Answers6

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  1. It is free, which means it sees more use on personal projects as well as on hosting platforms that provide a DMBS solution.
  2. It is one of the few solutions that can run on almost any operating system.
  3. It uses basic SQL rather than a specialized variant, meaning that it requires less-specialized knowledge to use.
  4. Setup and configuration is more straight-forward and less time-consuming than most other options.
Shaun
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  • It's also incredibly common - it's unlikely you'll find a commercial host that doesn't provide it included in the cost of the hosting package. – Mark Henderson Jan 24 '11 at 03:00
  • @Farseeker: It's common precisely for the first two reasons ;) – BoltClock Jan 24 '11 at 05:53
  • You may add that it's very reliable and used by giants. – Nishant Jan 24 '11 at 05:54
  • It's simple to configure... Anyone tried to setup a properly calibrated ORACLE install lately? – Andrew Moore Jan 24 '11 at 05:55
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    I was going to add "simple configuration" as a 4th option, but since I've never configured installs for Oracle or MSSQL, I couldn't say for certain. I have the predisposition that they are nightmares, but didn't want to base an answer on a feeling. :) – Shaun Jan 24 '11 at 15:50
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added more spices, is pretty fast for myisam

for what is meant free

if you using oracle, and you want to setup multiple instances on different boxes, you probably required to pay for each boxes.

unless, you have big budget to spent, oracle just don't sounds great

postgres is also free

mysql is easier to learn due to it's friendly sql (not standard compliance)

ajreal
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1

Early support in languages like PHP had a bit to do with it as well. While MySQL's C API is relatively straight forward (provided you are comfortable managing your callbacks), the PHP implementation made it crazy easy to use. Some would argue too easy to use.

I've worked in the hosting industry for quite a while, and notice trends. Almost as soon as PHP added support for SQLite3, people started asking for it to be installed. I'm not saying that PHP is the only contributing factor, nor can I guess at just how much of a factor it was, but it did have a bit to do with it.

After all, they call it LAMP for a reason.

Tim Post
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It's opensouce and free (Community Edition).

Robert Durgin
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Ubiquity, cost and performance.

Dan Grossman
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  1. Open Source - free of Cost [GNU license] - It is one among LAMP Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. So Its is suited with develop websites in PHP., etc.

  2. Light Weight - Usually in Web development the space is an important issue,MySQL occupies less memory as compared to others so it is considered to be light weight.

  3. While there is fight between gaints like Oracle vs SQL Server on Enterprise application, the MySql focused on the WEB Development and made popular.

  4. ...

Cosmin
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Karthik Sampath
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