With the delivery of MySQL 5.1 GA, our release policy sees a couple of changes in relation to that of MySQL 5.0.

First, initially we will deliver both MySQL Enterprise Server and MySQL Community Server in parallel. The bug fixes to the initial MySQL 5.1 GA releases will thus be delivered also in binary form for both MySQL Community Server and MySQL Enterprise Server.

Second, after a period of time, we will revert to the different release schedule for MySQL Enterprise Server and MySQL Community Server that we have been using. MySQL Enterprise Server will have more frequent binary releases. However, at this point, we do not have an exact date or a release number, when the first Enterprise only release will happen.

Third, we have done away with odd and even numbering. Whenever MySQL Community Server is released, it will carry the same release number as the corresponding MySQL Enterprise Server.

Fourth, MySQL Enterprise Server comes in more flavours than the MySQL Community Server. This will allow us to offer different optional pricing levels for our commercial subscriptions — where a customer will only have to pay extra for MySQL Enterprise support if he/she plans to use the higher-level features. Hence, MySQL Enterprise Server “Advanced” includes support for partitioning. However, do note that the MySQL Community Server provides the full partitioning functionality.

MySQL 5.1 is here! It’s announced! And it’s time for the overall winner, Position 1 in the MySQL 5.1 Use Case Competition.

1. Greg Haase (Lotame Solutions Inc., Elkridge, Maryland, USA): Using Partitioning and Event Scheduler to Prune Archive Tables. See Greg’s DevZone article, and his blog.

Thanks and congratulations, Greg! I absolutely hope you are in a position to take advantage of your free MySQL Conference & Expo 2009 Pass, including a dinner with MySQL co-founder Michael “Monty” Widenius.

Links:

• http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/2008/07/18/mysql-51-use-case-competition/
• http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/2008/08/26/mysql-51-use-case-competition-until-end-of-september
• http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/partitioning-event_scheduler.html
• http://blog.onefreevoice.com/

With the GA announcement of MySQL 5.1 coming up, we have picked the winners in the MySQL 5.1 Use Case Competition.

To keep you in suspense, let me first announce those on positions 5 to 10:

5. Fourat Zouari (TriTUX.com, Tunis, Tunisia): Using Partitioning for Data Warehousing. See Fourat’s DevZone article, and his blog entry from May 2008.

6. Ryan Thiessen (Big Fish Games, Seattle, Washington, USA): Logging Game Downloads with Partitioning. See Ryan’s DevZone article.

7. Christopher Lavigne (Breadboard BI, Inc., Pleasanton, California, USA): Using MySQL 5.1 for Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence. See Christopher’s DevZone article.

8. Jianzy Zhaoyang (Alibaba.com, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China): Using the MySQL 5.1 Event Scheduler for an Online Chat System. When Jian’s ongoing migration is done, he has promised a DevZone article.

9. Jakub Vrána (phpMinAdmin, Prague, Czech Republic): Managing Events in phpMinAdmin. See Lenz Grimmer’s blog entry.

10. Santo Leto (HoneySoftware, Trieste, Italy): 5.1 Use Case Reports. See Santo’s blog entries.

Thanks an congratulations, Fourat, Ryan, Christopher, Jian, Jakub and Santo! Your MySQL Community Contributor T-shirts are underway.

Links:

• http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/2008/07/18/mysql-51-use-case-competition/
• http://blogs.mysql.com/kaj/2008/08/26/mysql-51-use-case-competition-until-end-of-september
• http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/tritux_partitioning_datawarehousing.html
• http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/big_fish_games_partitioning.html
• http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/breadboardbi_data_warehouse.html

Within minutes after Finland was just about to win 3:2 over Germany in the football world championship qualifications (but it ended 3:3), I got a bit of consolation for myself, my dual-citizenship son cheering for Finland, and my fellow countrymen using MySQL:

We have the next MySQL 5.1 Use Case article live, and it’s about FC Inter Milan. No Finns playing there (but stars such as Ibrahimovic, Materazzi, Luis Figo, and Adriano). And, from a MySQL perspective, the interesting point is that FC Inter Milan is using both MySQL 5.1 Partitioning and the Event Scheduler in an innovative way.

Thanks Corrado Pandiani for the story — let’s hope your good Use Case inspires others!

Links:

• FC Inter Milan Using MySQL 5.1 Partitioning and Event Scheduler: http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/pandiani-use-case.html
• The MySQL 5.1 Use Case competition: http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/mysql-5.1-use-case-competition.html
• FC Inter Milan: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter
• Finland-Germany 3:3: http://svenska.yle.fi/nyheter/artikel.php?id=138742

We’re getting some high quality Use Cases from our user base, related to the MySQL 5.1 Use Case Competition.

The first one is by Greg Haase of Lotame, based in Elkridge, Maryland (USA), a company dedicated to providing solutions within social media. His article is about an innovative use of MySQL 5.1 partitioning and Event Scheduler to prune ARCHIVE tables.

There are more articles in the pipeline. And there is still time for you to submit your story by 30 September 2008. We’re all excited to read them, and with your permission, we’ll share them with our user base.

Links:

• Greg Haase’s article Using Partitioning and Event Scheduler to Prune Archive Tables: http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/partitioning-event_scheduler.html
• Greg’s blog about Databases and Linux: http://blog.onefreevoice.com/
• The MySQL 5.1 Use Case Competition announcement: http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/mysql-5.1-use-case-competition.html