Blog: Pete Loshin

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MySQL Windows Binary Release Shenanigans?

Everyone just chill out. It's easy to see conspiracies and plots and all that if you look hard enough, but there's nothing to see here. Really.

More inside, if you can't resist...

It started with MySQL no longer providing Windows binaries for free, an entry at Windows Skills blog.

The blogger noted that while the MySQL community release is available in source (uncompiled) form for version 5.0.33, the latest binary version you can download for Windows is 5.0.27 (see MySQL community download page. The blogger made a point of saying it was the Windows version that was backed up--but in fact, everyone has to compile from sources if they want the latest and greatest.

Well, that's kind of a drag if you're stuck doing DBA on Windows servers (which means compiling source code is kind of a major task rather than just a chore). But everyone has to do it, unless they are willing to pay MySQL for the latest and greatest binaries.

That's business, but not that big a deal.

Kaj Arnö, MySQL VP of Community Relations, wrote about the new release here, MySQL 5.0.33 Community Server released, noting that this is the first time MySQL is publishing a point release as sources without offering binaries for everone as well.

The bottom line is that MySQL is in business to make money, and if you need the latest and greatest, you can either pay them a reasonable fee for the service of providing compiled binaries, or you can take the time to figure it out for yourself.

As Kaj notes, you can even get more up-to-date binaries by updating your Linux as the distributions start catching up with MySQL's releases.

Got it? Same as what Red Hat does with Red Hat Enterprise Linux: if you want it, you can dowload and compile it yourself, buy it from Red Hat, or get someone else to do it for you. Don't expect these guys to give away the store, forever. It's still a better deal than the closed-source alternatives.

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