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

On 5/16/26 6:10 AM, Otto Kekäläinen wrote:
> 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.
> 
> With the recent releases of MySQL 9.7 and MariaDB 12.3, there is now
> enough divergence between the two codebases to warrant dismantling
> this metapackage. Their SQL dialects, authentication methods and other
> features have drifted to the point where treating them as
> interchangeable drop-in alternatives under a single virtual package is
> becoming misleading. We have already seen this friction for example in
> the Perl ecosystem had to split into libdbd-mysql-perl and
> libdbd-mariadb-perl because the underlying drivers can no longer
> support both engines.
> 
> 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. For example, according to WordPress.org usage
> statistics[1], MySQL 8.4 has only managed a 7% share two years after
> its April 2024 release, while the more recent MariaDB 11.8 already has
> a 13% share - nearly double the traction in half the time. Those stats
> also show MariaDB's overall share is now over 60%. Also note that for
> MySQL, the majority is still on versions 5.7 or 8.0, which both are
> now EOL and their share is likely to drop soon.
> 
> Many prominent open source projects also recommend MariaDB over MySQL
> (e.g. Nextcloud [2],Mediawiki [3]). Despite pledges from the
> community, Oracle hasn't shown any signs of being a better open source
> steward, the commit activity is decreasing [4], and no new commits
> have been published for the main branch in the past 5 months.
> 
> If you look at the Debian Popcon graph for mysql-server versions [5],
> it shows that users installing MySQL in derivatives or from
> third-party repos are becoming increasingly rare. When comparing
> directly MySQL vs MariaDB in popcon it is also very obvious that
> interest for MySQL is vaining rapidly [6].
> 
> 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. Users who require Oracle MySQL
> can continue to use third-party repositories, but our archive
> packaging should honestly reflect what Debian actually ships and
> supports in main.
> 
> Let me know if you see any concrete blockers for your packages.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Otto

Can you confirm that no application will be compatible with one or the 
other? Like, will my applications stop working with mysql, somehow?

If not, I don't see the point.

Cheers,

Thomas Goirand (zigo)