Several prominent Linux distributions have made the switch from MySQL to MariaDB, most notably Fedora starting in 2013, RHEL in 2014, and Debian in 2017. However, the popular Ubuntu distribution has yet to embrace MariaDB as its default choice.
Recently, the Ubuntu development team has started to consider this proposal, with Otto Kekäläinen, a member of the development team, suggesting that Ubuntu is one of the last major Linux distributions still using MySQL. He argues that MariaDB is more open-source, more stable (especially compared to recent versions of MySQL with increasing bugs), faster, feature-rich, and has a growing user community. Additionally, MariaDB has been the default choice of Debian, which serves as the basis for Ubuntu, for quite some time. Therefore, Ubuntu should consider making the switch to MariaDB as the default database starting from Ubuntu 25.04.
Kekäläinen’s proposal is currently just his personal opinion, and the decision rests with the internal Ubuntu team moving forward.
Source: ubuntu-devel via Phoronix
TLDR: Ubuntu is contemplating switching from MySQL to MariaDB due to its open-source nature, stability, speed, and community support, following the lead of other major Linux distributions.
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