According to a CIO article published 5 days ago, New MySQL Database May Ship Next Month. This is something that the open-source and software community as a whole has been waiting for for what seems like eternity. Even MySQL themselves are calling version 5 its most significant upgrade yet. The BIG improvement that everyone is very aware of is that MySQL 5 will have proper stored procedures. It has other long sought features like triggers, views and better (or more recognised) error-handling as well, but Stored Procs are the biggest improvement. This will almost certainly see them mount more of a challenge to Microsoft's SQL Server and to a lesser extent Oracle.

I am a huge fan of MySQL (see my previous post on MySQL and .NET) and there are ways to work around the stored procedure shortcomming, but it is without question a huge shortcomming. As anyone with some database knowledge knows SPs are quicker to run, easier to maintain & extend, easier to use with C# (for instance), type-safe & more secure (using type-safe parameters stops any malicious sql being run).

According to the article they will not be changing their open-source and licensing policies - MySQL will still be available with a General Public License (GPL). This is in contrast to what Phil Armitage, a friend of mine and someone with his ear to the software ground, has been hearing. According to Phil, there could be some interesting (read: bad) news regarding Oracle involvement in MySQL and more specifically InnoDB. I do hope this is just scare-mongering and that MySQL will continue to aspire to those most noble of causes: open-source software. Judging by the job title they have given their co-founder, David Axmark, of "open-sorcerer" we're on the same page.

I for one am about as excited about MySQL 5 as I am about VS2005!