The Untold Story of Monty Widenius: How MySQL Became the World’s Top Database

According to the latest StackOverflow survey, MySQL remains the world’s most popular database, used by 44.3% of developers, far ahead of SQL Server, and this article reveals how it was created by Michael “Monty” Widenius.

Monty left Helsinki University of Technology at 19, taught himself programming, and by age 33 released MySQL, which quickly became the leading open‑source database; even at 55 he remained the company’s top coder.

Born in 1962, Monty bought his first personal computer with money earned paving roads during a summer job, quickly realizing his knack for coding, which he described as feeling like playing a video game for hours.

While peers attended parties, Monty stayed home perfecting code, believing that good code should be written once and never need rewriting, emphasizing performance and optimal design.

In the early 1980s, Monty expanded his computer’s memory, traveled to Sweden, met David Axmark and Allan Larsson, and after years of collaboration they founded MySQL AB in 1995; Monty handled programming while his partners managed other duties, and MySQL 1.0 launched in October 1996 to great acclaim for its speed, reliability, and ease of use.

The name “MySQL” combines Monty’s daughter’s nickname “My” with SQL, the Structured Query Language used to communicate with databases.

At an open‑source conference, Monty announced MySQL would be open source, adopting a licensing model that required payment only when enterprises profit from the software, a strategy that allowed community contributions while sustaining the business.

As CTO, Monty continued to code daily, hiring developers who could work autonomously and valuing community interaction over formal meetings, fostering a culture that attracted top talent.

The success of MySQL stemmed from the partnership between CTO Monty, focused on perfect code, and CEO Mårten Mickos, who drove product delivery and team growth, creating a complementary vision for the company.

Monty advises programmers to engage in open‑source projects and personal coding; after Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, he founded MariaDB, a community‑driven fork of MySQL that is now the default database in many Linux distributions.

Committed to open source, Monty uses his MySQL earnings to support OpenOcean, hosts developer lunches in Helsinki, and plans a Slack channel for direct interaction with the community.