# MySQL

> The open-source relational database that powered the early web and still runs much of it.

- Level: Intermediate
- Topics: Data, Software
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/mysql/
- In Spanish: [MySQL](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/mysql/)

**MySQL** is a relational database: it keeps data in tables with rows and columns, and you read and change it with SQL. It runs as a server program; your application connects to it over the network, by default on port `3306`, sends queries and gets rows back.

It was created in Sweden in the mid-1990s by the company MySQL AB, and the name comes from My, the daughter of co-founder Michael Widenius. Free, fast to install and good enough for most websites, it became the M in the classic LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and the database behind WordPress, early Facebook and countless online shops.

Sun Microsystems bought MySQL AB in 2008, and Oracle got it when it bought Sun in 2010. Worried about its future under Oracle, Widenius started a fork called **MariaDB**, which stays largely compatible. Today MySQL is still open source under the GPL, with paid editions from Oracle, and every major cloud sells it as a managed service, such as Amazon RDS for MySQL.

## An analogy

Like the classic filing cabinet every office used to buy: not the fanciest model, but sturdy, cheap, everyone knows how the drawers work, and spare parts are everywhere.

## Keep in mind

- Open-source relational database, queried with SQL, listening on port 3306 by default.
- The M in the LAMP stack and the usual database behind WordPress sites.
- Owned by Oracle since 2010; MariaDB is a community fork by its original creator.
- Offered as a managed service by all major cloud providers.

## Go deeper

- [MySQL on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL)
- [What is MySQL? (Oracle)](https://www.oracle.com/mysql/what-is-mysql/)

## Related terms

- [Database](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/database/): An organized store of data that programs can search and update safely.
- [SQL](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/sql/): The language you use to ask a database questions.
- [Server](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/server/): A computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, all day, every day.
- [Port](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/port/): The numbered door on a computer that says which program a connection is for.
- [Website](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/website/): A set of web pages under one address, stored on a server and opened in a browser.
- [Linux](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/linux/): A free, open source operating system that runs most of the internet's servers.
- [PHP](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/php/): A language that runs on the server and builds web pages before they reach you.
- [CMS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cms/): Software that lets people publish and edit a website's content without writing code.