The Story: Behind MySQL

            If you’ve had even the slightest bit of experience with rational databases, you’ve probably encounter the word MySQL: It’s a high-performance, multiuser relational database management system that is today the de facto standard for database-driven software applications, both on and off the Web.

Designed around three fundamental principles---speed, stability, and ease of use---and freely available under the GNU General Public  License, MySQL has been dubbed “the world’s most popular open-source database” by its parent company MySQL AB and with good reason. Official statistics reveal over five million sites are creating, using, and deploying MySQL-based application, with more coming into the fold on a daily basis. You may even have heard of some of MySQL’s customers: do the names Yahoo!, Google, Cisco, NASA and HP sound familiar?

History

              The MySQL story hasn’t always hasn’t been about rocketing growth rates and high user satisfaction ratings, however. MySQL has an interesting history, with roots going back to 1979, when Michael “Monty” Widenius created a database system named UNIREG for the Swedish company TcX. UNIREG didn’t work for TcX on account of performance issues, and TcX began a search for alternatives. They tried mSQL, a DBMS created by David Hughes, but when that attempt also failed, a new approach was called for. Thus, Widenius decide to create a new database server customized to his specific requirements, but based on the mSQL  API (to simply porting applications between the two). That system, completed and released to a small group in May 1996, became MySQL 1.0.