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Preparations for setting up a 
database server
Before we get started with setting up our database server, there are a few odds 
and ends to get out of the way. As we go through this chapter, we'll set up a basic 
database server using MariaDB. I'm sure more than a few of my readers are familiar 
with MySQL. MySQL is a tried and true solution that is still in use in many data 
centers today, and that will probably continue to be the case for the foreseeable 
future. There's a good chance that a popular website or two that you regularly visit 
utilizes it on the backend. So, you may be wondering then, why not go over that 
instead of MariaDB?
There are two reasons why this book will focus on MariaDB. First, the majority of the 
Linux community is migrating over to it (more on that later), and it's also a drop-in 
replacement for MySQL. This means that any databases or scripts you've already 
written for MySQL will most likely work just fine with MariaDB, barring some edge 
cases. In reverse, the commands you practice with MariaDB should also function as 
you would expect on a MySQL server. This is great, considering that many MySQL 
installations are still in use in many data centers, and you'll be able to support those 
too. For the most part, there are very few reasons to stick with MySQL when your 
existing infrastructure can be ported over to MariaDB, and that's the direction the 
Linux community is headed toward anyway.
Why the change? If you 
regularly read the news regarding Linux topics, you may 
have seen articles from time to time regarding various distributions switching to 
MariaDB from MySQL. Red Hat is one such example; it switched to MariaDB in 
version 7 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Other distributions, such as Arch Linux and 
Fedora, went down the same route. This was partly due to a lack of trust in Oracle, 
the company that now owns MySQL. When Oracle became the owner of MySQL, 
there were some serious questions raised in the open source community regarding 
the future of MySQL as well as its licensing. I'm not going to get into any speculation 
about Oracle, the future of MySQL, or any politics regarding its future since it's not 
relevant to this book (and I'm not a fan of corporate drama). The fact, though, is that 
many distributions are moving toward MariaDB, and that seems to be the future. It's 
a great technology, and I definitely recommend it over MySQL for several reasons 
that are unrelated to current controversies.
MariaDB is more than just a fork of MySQL. On its own, it's a very competent 
database server. The fact that your existing MySQL implementations should be 
compatible with it eases adoption. But more than that, MariaDB makes some very 
worthwhile changes and improvements to MySQL that will only benefit you.

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Chapter 13