Generic criteria from QSOS version 1.6 Intrinsic durability Maturity less than 3 months if between 3 months and 3 years after 3 years 2 MySQL is more than 10 years old Unstable software with numerous releases or patches generating side effects Stabilized production release existing but old. Difficulties to stabilize developpement releases Stabilized software. Releases provide bug fixes corrections but mainly new functionalities 2 Branch 5.1 of MySQL seems to be stable Software knows several problems which can be prohibitive No know major problem or crisis History of good management of crisis situations 1 For a long time MySQL was not much considered by DBA, due to table locks on MyISAM tables and the lack of functionalities like stored procedures or transactions Software is very likely to be forked in the future Software comes from a fork but has very few chances of being forked in the future Software has very little chance of being forked. It does not come from a fork either 2 Mature product. MySQL AB. owns a large part of source code and MySQL seems to be protected against forks Adoption by community and industry Very few users identified Detectable use on Internet Numerous users, numerous references 2 MySQL is the most popular open source RDBMS None Few refences, non critical usages Often implemented for critical applications 2 MySQL has numerous references including Yahoo! or the NASA No community or without real activity (forum, mailing list, ...) Existing community with a notable activity Strong community: big activity on forums, numerous contributors and advocates 2 Around 70 external contributors according to the project. Very important activity on forums and blogs. No book about the software Less than 5 books about the software are available More than 5 books about software are available, in several languages 2 Numerous books related to MySQL, in several languages Organisation and leadership of developments 1 to 2 individuals involved, not clearly identified Between 2 and 5 independent people More than 5 people 2 Members of the leading team are known and clearly identified Complete dictatorship Enlightened despotism Council of architects with identified leader (e.g: KDE) 1 MySQL AB (employer of the core team) decides orientations of developments Activity of the project and around the software Less than 3 developers, not clearly identified Between 4 and 7 developers, or more unidentified developers with important turnover More than 7 developers, very stable team 2 Core team about 40 developers, 70 identified external contributors. The core team is stabilized since its members are employed by MySQL AB. Slow reactivity in forum or on mailing list, or nothing regarding bug fixes in releases note Detectable activity but without process clearly exposed, loing reaction/resolution time Strong reactivity based on roles and tasks assignment 2 No or few new functionalities Evolution of the product driven by the core team or by user's request without any clearly explained process Tool(s) to manage feature requests, strong interaction with roadmap 1 Features requests can be entered in the bugtracker system Very weak activity on both production and development releases Activity on production and developmenet releases. Frequent minor releases (bug fixes) Important activity with frequent minor releases (bugs fixes) and planned major releases relating to the roadmap forcast 2 Regular new releases, up to several per month in stabilization phase Industrialization level of the project Developments realized at 100% by employees of a single company 60% maximum 20% maximum 0 MySQL AB is the unique copyrigth owner of most part of source code (except some storage engines) and employs core team members Services offering No offer of training identified Offer exists but is restricted geographically and to one language or is provided by a single contractor Rich offers provided by several contractors, in serveral languages and split into modules of gradual levels 2 MySQL AB has more than 52 authorized partners including many certified partners No offer of support except via public forums and mailing lists Offer exists but is provided by a single contractor without strong commitment quality of services Multiple service providers with strong commitment (e.g: guaranteed resolution time) 2 MySQL AB offers support services and several other services also exist in the MySQL partnership program No offer of consulting service Offer exists but is restricted geographically and to one language or is provided by a single contractor Consulting services provided by different contractors in serveral languages 2 More than 250 service providers worlwide with 27 "MySQL Network" certified partners No user documentation Documentation exists but shifted in time, is restricted to one language or is poorly detailed Documentation always up to date, translated and possibly adapted to different target readers (end user, sysadmin, manager, ...) 2 Extensive documentation (reference manual, cluster, connectors, graphical tools). The reference manual is available in several languages (english, german, french, japanese, portuguese, russian) Quality assurance process No QA process Identifies QA process but not much formalized and with no tool Automatic testing process included in code's life-cycle with publication of results 2 Integrated test suite (make test), extensible with an interpretor (mysqltest) and with possibility to automatically submit bug reports (mysqlbug) No bug or feature request management tool Standard tools provided (for instance by a hosting forge) but poorly used Very active use of tools for roles/tasks allocation and progress monitoring 2 Complete bug tracking and feature request tool available (affectations, statistics, search). cf. http://bugs.mysql.com Packaging for various operating systems BSD The software is not packaged for FreeBSD A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support A official port exists in FreeBSD 2 The software is not packaged for Mac OS X A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support The software is packaged in the distribution 2 MySQL AB provides dmg files The software is not packaged for NetBSD A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support A official port exists in NetBSD 2 The software is not packaged for OpenBSD A port exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support A official port exists in OpenBSD 1 Linux The software is not packaged for Debian A Debian package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support The software is packaged in the distribution 1 A package exists but not official support The software is not packaged for Mandriva A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support The software is packaged in the distribution 2 The software is not packaged for Red Hat/Fedora A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support The software is packaged in the distribution 2 MySQL AB provides RPM for Red Hat Entreprise Linux. The software is not packaged for SuSE A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support The software is packaged in the distribution 2 5.1 is available for SuSE 9, 10 and 11. Software can't be installed from source without lot of work Installation from source is limited and depends on very strict conditions (OS, arch, lib, ...) Installation from source is easy 2 Installation from source is well documented in the MySQL Reference Manual Unix The software is not packaged for AIX A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support A stable package is provided for AIX 1 Needs to compile the code and there are specific instructions for AIX http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/ibm-aix.html The software is not packaged for HP-UX A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support A stable package is provided for HP-UX 1 MySQL AB provides tar and depot files The software is not packaged for Solaris A package exists but it has important issues or it doesn't have official support (e.g: SunFreeware.com ) The software is supported by Sun for Solaris 2 MySQL is "managed" by Sun but not fully supported (Sun provides existing patches and escalates new bugs to the developer community) The project can't be installed on Windows A package exists but it is limited or has important issues or just cover some specific Windows release (e.g: Windows 2000 and Windows XP) Windows is full supported and a package is provided 2 An installer is provided, it includes an Configuration Wizard Exploitability level Difficult to use, requires an in depth knowledge of the software functionality Austere and very technical ergonomics GUI including help functions and elaborated ergonomics 2 Easy-to-use solution, tools with user friendly GUIs No administrative or monitoring functionalities Existing, functionalities but uncomplete and or need improvement Complete and easy-to-use administration and monitoring functionalities. Possible integration with external tools (e.g: SNMP, syslog, ...) 1 The Enterprise Monitor tool is only available if erolling on Enterprise subscription Technical adaptability Monolithic software Presence of hight level modules allowing a first level of software adaptation Modular conception, allowing easy adaptation of the software by selecting or creating modules 1 Multi storage engine support is a very modular feature Everything by hand Recompilation possible but complex without any tools or documentation Recompilation with tools (e.g: make, ANT, ...) and documentation provided 1 Source code publicly downloadable or via BitKeeper. Compilation done with GNU tools (gcc, make, libtools) Any modification requires code recompilation Architecture designed for static extension but requires recompilation Principle of plugin, architecture designed for dynamic extension without recompilation 1 Possible to add new functions and procedures but requires recompilation Project's strategy License, only if user wants to become owner of code Very strict license, like GPL Moderate permissive license located between both extremes (GPL and BSD) dual-licensing depending on the type of user (person, company, ...) or their activities Very permissive like BSD or Apache licenses 0 Very permissive like BSD or Apache licenses Moderate permissive license located between both extremes (GPL and BSD), dual-licensing depending on the type of user (person, company, ...) or their activies Very strict license, like GPL 2 Rights held by a few individuals or entities, making it easier to change the license Rights held by numerous individuals owning the code in a homogeneous way, making relicense very difficult Rights held by a legal entity in whom the community trusts (e.g: FSF or ASF) 0 Most part of source code is owned by MySQL AB. The InnoDB transactionnal storage engine is owned by Oracle. No pratical way to propose code modification Tools provided to access and modify code (like CVS or SVN) but not really used to develop the software The code modification process is well defined, exposed and respected, based on roles assignment 1 Source code available but no development guide or architecture document No published roadmap Existing roadmap without planning Versionned roadmap, with planning and measure of delays 1 Features and bugs to fix are detailed. Not sure about release dates specially after Oracle offer to buy Sun Software has no sponsor, the core team is not paid Software has an unique sponsor who might determine its strategy Software is sponsored by industry 2 Strong dependance from MySQL AB. No detectable strategy or strong dependency on one unique actor (person, company, sponsor) Strategical vision shared with several other free and open source projects but without strong commitment from copyrights owners Strong independence of the code team, legal entity holding rights, strong involvement in the standardization process 0 Strong dependance from MySQL AB

Standard RDBMS features Compliance levels with SQL standards Limited to Entry-level only Transitional or Intermediate support levels Full support level 0 MySQL continues to work toward compliance with the SQL standard, but without sacrificing speed or reliability. Limited to Core level only Some optional features are implemented and compliant Most of options in packages (Framework, Foundation, Call Level Interface, Persistent Stored Modules, and Host Language Bindings) are implemented 0 MySQL continues to work toward compliance with the SQL standard, but without sacrificing speed or reliability. Features implemented far from SQL:2003 core compliance Most of SQL:2003 core features are implemented and compliant SQL:2003 core compliant and most of options in packages (SQL/Framework, SQL/Foundation, SQL/CLI, SQL/PSM, SQL/MED, SQL/OLB, SQL/Schemata, SQL/JRT, SQL/XML) are implemented 1 Classic SQL features Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 1 Using STRICT_TRANS_TABLES Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 1 Using STRICT_TRANS_TABLES Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 0 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 1 Only on InnoDB tables Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 0 Security features Levels of access control supported (usaername, table, base, etc...) username, table, base and client's hostname. Authentication methods supported SHA1. Does not support PAM or LDAP. Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Transactional aspects Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 1 Only with InnoDB tables Transactional modes (or isolation level) supported READ-UNCOMMITTED, READ-COMMITTED, REPEATABLE-READ, SERIALIZABLE Table locks only Pages locks Row locks 1 Table locks on MyISAM tables, row lock on InnoDB tables Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Other SQL features Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 0 schema=database Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2 Not implemented Partially implemented Fully implemented 2