Robin Schumacher

Yes, even though MySQL 5.1 is in beta (soon to be RC), our surveys show that folks are using 5.1 already for production use.

If you’re using 5.1 for production apps, I’d appreciate it if you could drop me a line and let me know what motivated you to move up to 5.1. What 5.1 features made you take the plunge? As we’re in the midst of planning features for the upcoming server versions, knowing what you like about 5.1 and what improvements you’d like to see over what we did in 5.1 would be a great help. Shoot me a note at rschumacher@mysql.com.

Thanks!

I’m real excited about our upcoming seminars for Oracle DBAs who want to learn MySQL. Having used Oracle myself for many years, I know full well there are lots of cases where Oracle and MySQL are a great combination to have in a side-by-side manner. There are things you can do with Oracle that you can’t do with MySQL and (believe it or not…) there are things you can do with MySQL that you can’t do with Oracle. Plus we have lots of folks who offload Oracle application data to MySQL data marts/warehouses or other systems. This being the case, it’s not surprising that even the IOUG (International Oracle Users Group) admit that now 1/3 of Oracle shops use MySQL.

The upcoming seminars, scheduled for New York (August 14th) and San Francisco (August 16th) don’t contain fluffy presenations, but instead focus on the hard-core tech details DBAs love. Oracle DBAs will leave these seminars armed with the information they need to smartly manage MySQL in their environments. Everything from the architecture similarities/differences between Oracle and MySQL, security, object management, performance and tuning, and more will be covered. And of course, the great thing is that it’s all FREE.

If you’re in or close to these cities, don’t miss out and register now. Just a casual look at DBA job ads these days will tell you that having MySQL DBA abilities is an extremely attractive trait to possess.

Just a reminder that a new version of the 5.1 beta has been released, so please download the latest and greatest and keep submitting any bugs that you find. Also please shoot me a mail (rschumacher@mysql.com) and let me know how you’re using 5.1 and what features you find most useful. Thanks!