title: Which MySQL Fork/Version to Pick?
body: <p>As most of you know, Sun acquired MySQL (and later Oracle acquired Sun), and during these acquisitions, there were a lot of FUD in MySQL community which resulted in creation of various forks.</p>
  
  <p>Today we have MySQL from MySQL, Percona (XtraDB) MySQL, OurDelta MySQL, MariaDB, Drizzle to name a few. Which brings us to the source of the problem.</p>
  
  <p>We are in the process of upgrading our databases (hardware/software) and I would like to know which one of the forks should I go with. Each has their own set of pros/cons. We are currently using MySQL 5.0.x from MySQL/Linux on an 8-core machine. Our new hardware is a monster with <strong>32 cores and 32GB of memory</strong> connecting to a fast NetApp Storage via FC.</p>
  
  <p>I would like to stick with MySQL from MySQL but I have heard horror stories on how badly MySQL 5.1 performs on many cores. I have also heard that MySQL 5.4 performs better on multi-core machines but that's still not production ready. In addition, I have also heard a lot of good things about Percona builds.</p>
  
  <p>This is what I know so far:</p>
  
  <p><strong>MySQL 5.1 from MySQL:</strong> Reliable choice, but doesn't scale well on a big machine</p>
  
  <p><strong>Percona:</strong> Scales well, good backing company. I don't have much experience with it</p>
  
  <p><strong>MariaDB:</strong> Don't know much about it besides that it was founded by Original MySQL developers (including Monty)</p>
  
  <p><strong>OurDelta:</strong> Don't know much</p>
  
  <p><strong>Drizzle:</strong> Mostly optimized for cloud computing</p>
  
  <p>I would like to know what's the general notion about this problem. Which build/version should I go with? How are you guys picking your builds/versions?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>