It would not be a stretch to call percona server a branch as well. It has rebased twice already (5.5 and 5.6) and tries to focus on high impact small changes.

It would not be a stretch to call percona server a branch as well. It has rebased twice already (5.5 and 5.6) and tries to focus on high impact small changes. Not to make excuses, but oracles position of supporting releases for 8 years on many platforms is not an easy one. Being able to see what works out in branches that don't have this constraint is actually great for the whole ecosystem. (Disclaimer: former percona employee. Current oracle employee)