Stop using MySQL in 2026, it is not true open source
22 points by soulcutter
22 points by soulcutter
With few new features and heavy focus on code base cleanup and feature deprecation, it became obvious to many that Oracle had decided to just keep MySQL barely alive
Refactoring is a sign for a dead product?
The irony of suggesting MariaDB over MySQL because of licensing is either hilarious, or depressing and I can't tell which.
Since the day Oracle bought Sun, we've heard how Oracle is going to kill MySQL, and/or make all its features "enterprise" only.
I had a whole spiel here but fuck it. You don't need my opinion on all this. Just look up the basics. (Or don't and read the answers at the bottom).
Also, there is of course also the elephant in the room, that MariaDB was bought by a private equity firm. I'm sure someone is going to tell me the foundation is not the company. In response to that I have just one more question:
For anyone who doesn't want to do a RJD-esque Sherlock Holmes impersonation tracking these answers down:
Also it keeps generating character encoding issues which really shouldn't exist like this anymore.
I'll migrate to another db when wikimedia migrates.
Look, it's not as easy as it sounds, ok? https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/issues/539
To the author: Stop using the Internet in 2026. It is not true open source.
Unlike the internet, there are plenty of open source databases to choose from, some of them arguably better.
As with all things, it depends. The Internet is just one communication medium. There are other ways to reach each other, some arguably better.
MySQL is arguably better for some people. They should keep using it for their reasons. Purity levels of open source-ness notwithstanding.
This is a bad faith response to a pretty reasonable argument. In fact I'd guess you're just reacting to the title and not the content.
There are multiple reasons given that do not relate to open source licensing:
The complaint directly related to open source is also very practical:
This open vs. closed is very visible for example in how Oracle handles security issues. We can see that in 2025 alone MySQL published 123 CVEs about security issues ... There is no information a security researcher or auditor could use to verify if any original issue actually existed, or if it was fixed, or if the fix was sufficient and fully mitigating the issue or not. MySQL users just have to take the word of Oracle that it is all good now.
Well, I read the whole post as a post-hoc rationalisation for an ideology-driven black and white take. "No True Scotsman", as I remarked in the other comment.
Telling someone to stop using a DB they probably have invested heavily in, "because if you don't, you don't care about true open source" is absurd. Telling someone to stop using the Internet for the same reason is ridiculously absurd. No person in their right mind would ask another human being to do that, "in 2026".
Our zeitgeist is full of such ideology-driven positions. Is it worth making people feel bad about choosing a piece of software because it does not fit some exacting definition of "good"? The post pretty much paints that picture. Sure, the author gives a rationale, but put yourself in the shoes of someone who's just trying to put food on the table. How do you think they feel if they read this post?
You do have a more charitable way to interpret my original comment, even if you did not read my other comments in this thread. As well as comments by other people pointing out facts that show how absurd it is to argue for MariaDB given its circumstance... An intellectually honest author would not neglect to do their homework on the other off-hand recommendations they made.
Also... What in the actual tarnation... "There are options and migrating is easy, just do it". Seriously?
That doesn't have anything to do with 'open source'. Open source is about using an OSI-approved license. Does MySQL use an OSI-approved license?
You are using the fact that people use "open source" in an ambiguous way to restrict the topic to licensing only, intended to exclude open governance, despite the fact that this is a long-standing issue in the open source community.
This is like people who reductively constrain all conversations about "free speech" to the first amendment of the US constitution; either obtuse or deliberately missing the point.
I'm not trying to restrict the topic to licensing only. Please, discuss open governance as much as you like. But please, don't mistake it for open source.
I don't even disagree it's a worthwhile distinction to make, but you can plainly see that this is the thrust of the OP's argument in context. So I maintain it is more fruitful to engage the argument on its own terms rather than objecting on a technicality.
The technicality being the title, which says MySQL is not 'true open source'. And because of the nature of the internet, that's the headline that will spread everywhere, not the thrust of the OP's argument in context.
This is what I meant by obtuse: because the OP didn't craft the argument using the terms you prefer you're refusing to engage with the substance. What's the point?
Words matter. I will credit the author of the post of knowing exactly what they are doing, and how emotionally manipulative clickbait titles spread.
Refusing or accepting to engage with the substance is a different matter and should not be confused with objecting to the framing, which is misleading and will give many people the wrong impression. The point is all reasonable people here know that people mostly don't read beyond headlines on the internet, and choosing a misleading headline like this is part of the OP's strategy.
What parts of the Internet we use (DNS, HTTP, etc.) isn’t open-source? On the top of my head, only the Encrypted Multimedia Extensions aren’t.
Every manner of networking drivers, TCP implementations, switches, servers, networks, the DNS vendor ecosystem, ditto BGP software and operators, domain registrars / ICANN etc. etc. etc. etc...
My admittedly tongue-in-cheek absurdist remark is how the author's proposition reads to me... "No True Scotsman".