MySQL 5.1 release planned soon

Sun Microsystems announced yesterday that MySQL 5.1 is to be released sometime this quarter, but failed to specify a date.

A ‘near final’ version of the opensource database software is currently available on the Sun website, but Sun wants to avoid releasing a bug-ridden database, which happened when MySQL 5.0 was released two years ago.

MySQL have said that given the changes in the software, the new release would be better titled 6.0.

MySQL was purchased in January this year by Sun Microsystems for around US$1 billion. Under Sun’s leadership, MySQL is expected to become a serious competitor to market leaders IBM and Oracle.

The updates to the database reflect this as they are clearly targeted at enterprise. Additions include table and index partitioning, allowing for faster query responses, two new types of replication: hybrid-based replication, and row-based replication, and disk-based clustering.

Other changes include an event scheduler, that allows users to schedule recurring tasks, and an upgrade advisor, which will only be available to MySQL Enterprise subscribers.

Sun recommends that the release of MySQL 5.1 currently on the website should not be installed for customer use unless the new features needed immediately.

Despite this warning, the current release already has less bugs that the first official release of MySQL 5.0.