SSDs
I used a stratified (sometimes also known as "sedimentary") filing system on my "solid state desk". The chief failure mode is when I spill my glass of milk on it...
Oracle says it has doubled the performance of its open source MySQL database when running over large datasets across more than 40 cores, as it strives to preserve its lead in a market thronging with credible contenders. Oracle gave details of a "Development Milestone" release of version 5.7 of its MySQL database on Monday, …
It's easy to improve the performance over the last version based on fixing bugs introduced in the last version!
But on the whole I think Oracle is doing a reasonable job with MySQL: making InnoDB standard storage engine and promoting proper ACID practices; the workbench is a huge improvement over previous tools.
But I'm sticking with Postgres as my RDBMS of choice. Especially after yesterday's announcement about Postgres 10:
This release includes built-in, tradeoff-free multi-master replication, full integration with all other data stores, and a broad choice of SQL query dialects including Cassandra, Hadoop, Oracle, MS-SQL Server, MySQL, and mSQL.
@Mark #255 - it took me a while to get used to. It's not as good for schema management as the old one but for queries it's much better and a lot more stable. But it has taken a while to get there.
Unfortunately, somethings require an update to the server (using EXPLAIN for example). MySQL still provides little real information about the query plan but you do get pretty pictures! ;-)
I don't doubt that MySQL has been improved: Oracle's MySQL developers are no worse than the rest of us after all.
The real problem is that Oracle's reputation precedes them everywhere: having made life difficult with the open source assets that they acquired with Sun (Solaris, OpenOffice, Hudson etc.) every reasonable IT buyer is going to look carefully at the likely future of any project they put out, and consider the forked alternatives.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap.