The open-source database fork of MySQL, started by MySQL’s original developer – MariaDB – have certified their latest release of the 10.1 series (10.1.8) as Generally Available – i.e. suitable for production use.

MariaDB 10.1 is a drop-in, binary replacement for MySQL for those that want a quicker development cycle and don’t want to have their hands tied by Oracle, who know own the MySQL project.

I’ve already upgraded my server to this release, and if any of the below sound good to you – so should you.

The main theme of the changes is security and availability. MariaDB now includes high-availability functionality as standard, instead of requiring an additional piece of software, and includes full data encryption on disk – thanks to code submitted by Google.

For more details, see the MariaDB 10.1 announcement on the project’s blog.

To download MariaDB 10.1 now, head on over to the downloads page, or if you use a MariaDB package repository (recommended.)

With Ubuntu Server 15.10 on the horizon, it looks to be a busy month for software releases in the open-source world!