Re: Proposing the retirement of default-mysql-* metapackages for Forky

Hello Otto,

Otto Kekäläinen dijo [Sat, May 16, 2026 at 12:10:59PM +0800]:
>Hi all,
>
>I want to start a discussion about dismantling the
>default-mysql-server and default-mysql-client virtual packages for
>Forky (Debian 14), and transitioning the archive to point explicitly
>to mariadb-server and mariadb-client.
>
>To be clear: this change is proposed strictly for Forky and won't
>affect any older or currently supported stable releases.
>(...)
>It is also evident that the broader open source ecosystem has shifted
>from MySQL to MariaDB in the past decade as newer MySQL versions are
>not getting traction.
> (...)
>Many prominent open source projects also recommend MariaDB over MySQL
> (...)
>By announcing this abstraction as deprecated now, we give maintainers
>plenty of time to update their Depends and Build-Depends to point
>explicitly to MariaDB. The whole metapackage can be removed once zero
>packages depend on it in Forky+1 or +2.

Thank you very much for bringing this up. It's weird we are still offering
MySQL, as if it were the same and as if it were interchangeable. But even
more so, promoting the brand of a once-popular free software product. The
brand is the only thing, I think, that was valuable for Oracle when they
acquired it. And they managed to drive it into the ground.

I think the Debian should acknowledge reality and make it clear we are
*not* shipping that brand. And yes, that over 10 years have gone by, and
MariaDB is no longer where MySQL was back in the early 2010s.

So, thank you for stepping up with this important change!

 — Gunnar.

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