It’s been a long time coming but the wait is nearly over (and well worth it). If you haven’t been following MySQL 5.0 development very closely, the MySQL 5.0 Release Candidate has the following major new features:

  • Views (both read-only and updatable views)
  • Stored Procedures and Stored Functions
  • Triggers
  • Server-side cursors (read-only, non-scrolling)
  • Precision math
  • Larger VARCHARS (up to 64kb)
  • ARCHIVE storage engine
  • FEDERATED storage engine

I could write a lot more about several of those and may do so at some point. If you've been waiting for any of those features, give 5.0 a try. They're looking to get all of those last minute bugs squashed ASAP.

More details available in MySQL 5.0 in a Nutshell. Give it a try!

Oh, and speaking of open source... Check out Open Source Goes Corporate in this week's InformationWeek. I had a chance to talk with Larry a few weeks about how much MySQL, Apache, FreeBSD, PHP, Linux, and other Open Source software we use at Yahoo!

Posted by jzawodn at September 27, 2005 07:52 AM

Reader Comments
# Nick Arnett said:

Been using it in development for a few months now with no problems. None.

on September 27, 2005 09:36 AM
# dan isaacs said:

Good lord, you are getting downright skinny.

on September 27, 2005 10:47 AM
# Kevin Burton said:

Hi.. I'm a big fan of $FAVORITE_DATABASE_NAME ... I still think MySQL is a toy and I'll never switch!

It still doesn't have $STRANGE_FEATURE and without this one feature it's still not ready for prime time.

Also.. MySQL is still slow in $CRAZY_PERFORMANCE_METRIC so can't be used in production sites.

In summary only INSULTING_COMMENT people would use MySQL...

(couldn't resist.. expect thousands of posts like this on Slashdot)

on September 28, 2005 02:12 PM
# Mike said:

That's pretty funny, Kevin, considering most of the new features in MySQL 5.0 are just playing catch-up to other databases which have had these features for years. I still don't see any compelling reason to use MySQL.

on September 28, 2005 02:28 PM
# Jeremy Zawodny said:

Heh... Excellent. Thanks Kevin. :-)

on September 28, 2005 02:29 PM
# Kevin Burton said:

Mike... Thanks for proving my point :)

on September 30, 2005 03:24 PM
# Mike said:

Kevin, LMAO - I didn't prove your point in the least. Which of MySQL 5.0's new features do you consider "strange"?

on September 30, 2005 11:21 PM
# Neil T. said:

Seeing as MySQL is ridiculously easy to install and get running on OS X I'll upgrade my local copy.

on October 2, 2005 11:17 AM
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