MySQL's Decline: Oracle's Strategy and the Rise of PostgreSQL
Oracle’s post‑acquisition strategy has left MySQL lagging behind modern developers, while PostgreSQL, praised for features like parallel queries and vector search, now dominates the open‑source database market, prompting calls for MySQL’s transfer to the Linux Foundation to avoid obsolescence.
This article discusses the competitive landscape between MySQL and PostgreSQL in the open-source database market. According to the 2023 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, PostgreSQL has become the most popular database among developers, surpassing MySQL which holds 41.09% market share. The article attributes MySQL's declining momentum to Oracle's management strategy since acquiring MySQL in 2010.
Peter Zaitsev, a veteran MySQL engineer and founder of Percona, criticizes Oracle for focusing on proprietary features in MySQL Enterprise Edition and Heatwave, while neglecting the open-source community version. He points out that MySQL lacks features like parallel query execution, vector search, and JavaScript support that are available in PostgreSQL or as Heatwave-exclusive features. Zaitsev suggests that Oracle should transfer MySQL to the Linux Foundation to ensure its continued development and prevent its potential demise.
The article highlights that PostgreSQL has been gaining ground in DB-Engines rankings and won the 2023 Database of the Year award, while MySQL's prospects appear dimmer. The piece concludes that unless Oracle addresses modern developers' needs for relational databases, MySQL may face obsolescence.
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