[HN Gopher] Stop using MySQL in 2026, it is not true open source
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Stop using MySQL in 2026, it is not true open source
Author : thunderbong
Score : 49 points
Date : 2026-01-18 16:43 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (optimizedbyotto.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (optimizedbyotto.com)
| dfajgljsldkjag wrote:
| The author is right that usage is dropping, but that really has
| no bearing on whether or not it is open source. Technologies get
| replaced all the time regardless of the license they use.
| gnabgib wrote:
| Author is also being careful with the DB-Engines screen shot,
| usage of MySQL may be dropping, but it's still number two
| (below Oracle, above MSSQL - which shows the same curve, above
| Postgres, far above MariaDB and SQLite) https://db-
| engines.com/en/ranking_trend
| graemep wrote:
| The rankings methodology looks like it will favour MySQL.
|
| https://db-engines.com/en/ranking_definition
|
| Lots of historical mentions. Even the MariaDB website
| mentions it. Lots of people say "MySQL" generically to
| include its forks.
| bratao wrote:
| From my experience MariaDB is not necessarily better than MySQL.
| The 8.x line brought many interesting features. I dream on switch
| to Postgres, and try every year but for my use case MySQL is
| still superior (100Bi+ rows for large texts, and heavy modified -
| I'm also space constrained - So I need data compression and the
| VACUUM are not good.)
|
| The percona distribution is very good!
| CodesInChaos wrote:
| The storage engine is one of postgres's weakest points. I hope
| OrioleDB will eventually give us a more robust and easier to
| use replacement.
| MrDrMcCoy wrote:
| If space constrained and wanting compression, why not do that
| at the filesystem or block layer if it's not supported in the
| app?
| nubinetwork wrote:
| From my experience, mariadb is about the same as mysql...
| depending on the queries, it can either be fine, or slow as
| balls. I'm actually considering switching to pgsql to see if
| its any better. /shrug
| exabrial wrote:
| Is there anything in 8.0.x/8.4.x line that isn't present in
| MariaDb latest?
| dcmatt wrote:
| I'm not going to stop using it because it's not "true open
| source." I'm going to stop using it because there's better
| databases out there.
| antonvs wrote:
| Who's still using MySQL on the back end? Most Linux distributions
| come with MariaDB. Is it Windows servers?
| zinodaur wrote:
| MySQL performs well at large scale, and has a very cool and
| weird storage engine option called MyRocks, that slows read
| performance but allows demented write rates and compression.
|
| But yes, it is very bad.
| homebrewer wrote:
| I'm pretty sure Facebook is still running it. They've done a
| migration to 8.0 a couple of years after it came out (it was a
| massive release).
|
| https://engineering.fb.com/2021/07/22/core-infra/mysql
| logifail wrote:
| Happily using MariaDB (as packaged with Debian) in production
| here...
| fegu wrote:
| I used MariaDB in Azure, but got notified it was retired. Anyway,
| migrated to sqlite.
| 1over137 wrote:
| I'm stuck on MySQL because converting to postgres is hard, the
| tool everyone recommends (pgloader) doesn't work with current
| MySQL (https://github.com/dimitri/pgloader/issues/782), anyone
| know another way?
| captain_coffee wrote:
| How big of a DB are we talking about? You might need to
| recreate the whole DB schema / structure manually from scratch
| in PostgreSQL and then dump the data and load it in PG via
| standard SQL file exports in the correct table order to avoid
| failures due to FK constraints. This is a gross
| oversimplification but you get the gist
| 1over137 wrote:
| In fact I don't get the gist :) but thanks for your reply.
| All I know about databases is following instructions to set
| one up as part of a LAMP/FAMP installation.
| mlinster wrote:
| Unless you use stored procedures in MySQL, recreating the
| tables and schemas in Postgres should be straightforward.
| Postgres now offers a 'MySQL Adapter', a.k.a. Foreign Data
| Wrapper (https://github.com/EnterpriseDB/mysql_fdw), that
| makes it straightforward to load data from MySQL into
| Postgres.
|
| I know you mentioned that all you know about databases is
| following instructions, but maybe the folks at EDB or
| Percona can give you a hand.
|
| Postgres will be around for a long time, and I think it's
| pretty obvious that MySQL won't.
| homebrewer wrote:
| It does work, I just used pgloader to migrate a 16 GB database
| from MySQL 8.4 to PostgreSQL 18 last week (around 700 tables).
| It's not big, but their problems seem to be with
| authentication, not database size or functionality.
|
| Have you tried it doing it yourself?
| 1over137 wrote:
| I have tried. It fails in authentication like that ticket
| describes, so I seem to be stuck on square one.
| captain_coffee wrote:
| I would argue that the reason to stop using it is that is a
| pretty bad piece of software to begin with, not because it's not
| "true open source" but hey, whatever floats your boat, right?
| schmookeeg wrote:
| Oracle's icy touch. It was foretold. :D
| bitbasher wrote:
| Why would anyone use MySQL over Postgres in 2026?
| timbit42 wrote:
| Because they started with MySQL and it can be difficult to
| switch.
| exabrial wrote:
| One does not need to stop because "its not open source", one
| needs to switch because its no longer actively being developed.
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