| MySQL was simple. You didn't have to deal with schema/tablespaces, or the chance that someone used stored procs, or security (almost everyone just used the equivalent of a root account). MySQL just worked. For the most part, with zero monitoring, it stayed working until the server ran out of disk space or died. MySQL was always available. No matter which hosting company you looked at, no matter how little you wanted to spend, MySQL was pre-installed and ready for use. I never thought it was the better choice, but I understood why it dominated. Once things like Wordpress, vBulletin, phpBB and other stuff was written only for MySQL the choice was then made for you. I've long been a fan of applications that give you a choice of DB, but it's now unrealistic as many applications have designed schemas to cope with the quirks and limitations of MySQL specifically. These would now be harder to migrate than simply changing a database string, and most application devs don't invest in such things when what they have works well enough and is all anyone is asking for. |
That it was faster (for certain applications), easier and more reliable does make sense. I understand, for example why PHP got popular even though there were other options available at the time that I believe were better from a software engineering[0] perspective. Things get popular by being better at the things the majority of users care about, even if they're awful at everything else.
[0] Did I really just use that term? I can't think of a better one to describe the issue I'm talking about.