[yyqux]

I think it would be a bit premature to call MariaDB superior to MySQL.

Also it should be noted that the InnoDB storage engine was developed outside of MySQL AB. InnoDB is a helluva lot better than MyISAM for most applications because of performance and support for transactions, consistency, etc. Without it I don't think that MySQL would be a good candidate for many applications, particularly given that Postgres has improved a lot. I.e. I'm not sure Monty should really get credit for everything about MySQL/MariaDB.