[g4m8i7]

A lot of the big distros have transitioned to MariaDB already (https://mariadb.com/kb/en/distributions-which-include-mariad...). Debian probably will soon as well, which will trickle down into Ubuntu probably.

I think there's plenty of room outside Oracle if they were to ever shut down MySQL. I moved to MariaDB, and it really was a drop-in replacement.

[tvon]

Compatibility document for the curious:

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb-versus-mysql-compatibility...

[Shish2k]

TL;DR: It's 100% binary compatible, but PHP manages to have problems anyway

/facepalm

[g4m8i7]

I think it's only a problem if you're using mysql_ instead of mysqli_.

https://mariadb.com/kb/en/installation-issues-with-php5/

Since mysql_ is being deprecated soon (so they say, maybe PHP6 haha), it'd be good to migrate to mysqli_ anyway.

[generalpf]

Shouldn't everyone be on PDO by now? If you're still on mysql[i]_ you must be used to having problems.

[smacktoward]

Should be, absolutely.

Are, nope.

PHP's long-lived popularity means there's a huge amount of ancient PHP articles and tutorials still out there on the web that use the old library. Because these articles are both old and widely linked-to, they tend to come up when newbies search for PHP help. So they learn how to do things the wrong/deprecated way.

Resources like PHP the Right Way (http://www.phptherightway.com/) help counter this, but it'll continue to be a problem as long as using the old library doesn't cause any obvious problems like immediate crashes, screaming in-your-face error messages, etc.

[Demiurge]

I maintain an early 2000's php website that is pretty functional and has a lot of features, but uses the classic spaghetti code. I can't exactly just switch to PDO without considerable time investment, and otherwise things are working just fine. I don't think this is an uncommon scenario.

[generalpf]

I converted an OSS application that I wrote back in '03 to PDO in just a few hours. It actually helped me find security holes because of strong typing in bound parameters. Have a go!

[g4m8i7]

Probably. I'm a pretty poor developer. I'm a sysadmin who sometimes writes PHP apps for work. So, I'll look into PDO. :D

[g4m8i7]

lmm: (For some reason your post doesn't have a reply link) These are usually webapps for department-specific needs, and I generally find PHP to be easier. I have a few python things that I use on the backend, as well as a plethora of bash scripts. But, I admit to knowing PHP more than Python. (I'm in a smallish company, so I end up wearing a lot of hats)

generalpf: I will do so! Do you have any go-to references that you prefer? Or shall I just dig through the PHP docs?

[generalpf]

Definitely recommended! It will also help you when you swap out MySQL for something else later on... little to no rework!

[lmm]

If you've got the time, try writing one in python and see what you think.

[runamok]

More details: https://mariadb.com/kb/en/installation-issues-with-php5/ It's apparently not an issue with 5.4+ and has several fairly simple workarounds.