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I would argue that MySQL became popular because it was free, not because it was particularly better technology. We were, and still are, in that space (database

I would argue that MySQL became popular because it was free, not because it was particularly better technology. We were, and still are, in that space (database engines), and experienced it all first-hand. It's really, really hard to compete with free, especially when you're talking about adoption rates and customer numbers with potential customers.

brightball 8y ago
MySQL also fit really well with PHP because the connection creation overhead without any type of pool is very low. Both technologies scale down well. At least they used to. Lately I can’t keep even a tiny MySQL instance stable without a 1gb server.
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  Thanks for that insight. I hadn’t considered the connection mechanics with MySQL as a usability point for PHP. I often cite the traceability of early PHP and it’s one-file-per-url policy as usability features. Many of these features have been lost in modern PHP. A similar thing has happened with JS. There seems to be an opportunity for a back-to-the-roots platform that brings these things back.
  - brightball 8y ago
    Before I discovered Elixir, I actually had every intention of building something along those lines. I was going to have an index.php that was only used in dev for routing, but when you wanted to go to production it would generate paths that you'd load into nginx...which when directly to each individual .php file behind the scenes. Entire goal was back-to-the-roots speed.
    - erikpukinskis 8y ago
      If you can stomach JavaScript, I wrote a pretty aggressively don't-move-any-data-you-don't-have-to based web application server... https://github.com/erikpukinskis/browser-bridge https://github.com/erikpukinskis/browser-bridge ... with exactly that intention, of "ok just religiously only move exactly the memory I have to to feed a web browser". I need to take another look at Elixir....
hodgesrm 8y ago
To make that argument it's necessary to compare against other free DBMS implementations. MySQL and MongoDB lead the pack against other FOSS products and have for quite some time. (That's quite different from saying that they are well-suited for a particular purpose, which is a different matter entirely.) [0] https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/relational+dbms https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/relational+dbms [1] https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/document+store https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/document+store

brightball 8y ago

MySQL also fit really well with PHP because the connection creation overhead without any type of pool is very low. Both technologies scale down well. At least they used to. Lately I can’t keep even a tiny MySQL instance stable without a 1gb server.

erikpukinskis 8y ago
Thanks for that insight. I hadn’t considered the connection mechanics with MySQL as a usability point for PHP. I often cite the traceability of early PHP and it’s one-file-per-url policy as usability features. Many of these features have been lost in modern PHP. A similar thing has happened with JS. There seems to be an opportunity for a back-to-the-roots platform that brings these things back.
- brightball 8y ago
  Before I discovered Elixir, I actually had every intention of building something along those lines. I was going to have an index.php that was only used in dev for routing, but when you wanted to go to production it would generate paths that you'd load into nginx...which when directly to each individual .php file behind the scenes. Entire goal was back-to-the-roots speed.
  - erikpukinskis 8y ago
    If you can stomach JavaScript, I wrote a pretty aggressively don't-move-any-data-you-don't-have-to based web application server... https://github.com/erikpukinskis/browser-bridge https://github.com/erikpukinskis/browser-bridge ... with exactly that intention, of "ok just religiously only move exactly the memory I have to to feed a web browser". I need to take another look at Elixir....

hodgesrm 8y ago

To make that argument it's necessary to compare against other free DBMS implementations. MySQL and MongoDB lead the pack against other FOSS products and have for quite some time. (That's quite different from saying that they are well-suited for a particular purpose, which is a different matter entirely.) [0] https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/relational+dbms https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/relational+dbms [1] https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/document+store https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/document+store