[morgo]

Former MySQL Product Manager here (no longer affiliated).

I've been to a Monty talk about this subject, and let me say it was interesting...

Monty starts by saying that he does not acknowledge MySQL 5.6's existence since some new features are an abomination (usually citing GTIDs).

He then compares MySQL 5.5 to MariaDB (of which MariaDB is based on MySQL 5.5; so it contains the superset of features).

MySQL 5.5 was released in 2010. Support for it will end at the end of this year.

Development has diverged a lot since 2010. For a more balanced comparison, I recommend this one: https://www.percona.com/blog/2017/11/02/mysql-vs-mariadb-rea...