Happy 25th Birthday MySQL!

Today, May 23-rd 2020, MySQL turns 25 years old. I first got acquainted with it during my university years as I was searching for a free and open RDBMS system to learn and experiment with SQL. And I used it ever since then. I thus followed the evolvement of "The world's most popular open source database" over the past about 20 years since 3.2x versions. It's a big anniversary. So what does MySQL mean for me?

• First and foremost, MySQL is the relational (and also non-relational) database of choice for both my personal and professional projects. For me it's easier to think new database schemes in the terms of MySQL and architect new systems on top of MySQL as a database system;
• MySQL is getting better and better with the years, which keeps me interested. I still remember the arrival of:
• 4.0 (with support for unions, etc.),
• then 4.1 (sub-queries and prepared statements, etc.),
• then 5.0 (stored routines, triggers and views, distributed transactions, etc.),
• then 5.1 (table partitioning, XML and event scheduler, etc.),
• then 5.5 (SIGNAL and RESIGNAL, PERFORMANCE_SCHEMA),
• then 5.6 (Full-text for InnoDB, etc.),
• then 5.7 (JSON, named triggers, generated columns, optimizer hints, etc.),
• and more recently 8.0 (CTEs, window functions, regular expressions improvements, GROUPING function, document store, CHECK constraints, LATERAL, functional key parts and defaults and many, many more);
• I'm building MySQL server (and other products) for Slackware Linux since 2005, because at first I needed newer versions than the ones provided by the official repository and then, because Slackware switched to MariaDB in 2013, but I choose to stick with MySQL. This doesn't mean I do not use MariaDB at all and in some aspects I believe it's ahead;
• I'm reporting bugs for MySQL and related products, so I could get problems resolved (see the story of some of my bug reports);
• I'm blogging about MySQL for the past 2 years since the release of MySQL 8.0, which helps me get familiar with the new features;
• I'm also presenting about MySQL from time to time, which helps me engage with the community, learn from and exchange ideas with the more experienced then me;
• Last, but definitely not least, there is a great and very strong community around MySQL, with which I got the chance to engage more in the past 3 years. This is what makes a project like MySQL strong over so many years.

To put it simply for me MySQL is a lot more than a database. MySQL has been with me for a significant part of my life so far and it makes me happy to see the database continues to evolve. Still I believe that improved SQL standard support and new development features should have arrived earlier, but better later than never. Also the development could be more open, but I'm confident that the future is open and bright.

Here's to the next 25 years and beyond! Happy birthday MySQL! Cheers to all that use and love MySQL!