MySQL in openSUSE and you

Earlier today I asked on this blog and everywhere else people to fill in a simple survey of how do they use MySQL, which one and what should I focus on. I already have more than 30 answers (don’t stop answering, keep providing more) so I will have to publish the results and do something with them. But first I’ll let the survey run for at least a week 😉 Oh, and even though I write MySQL, this post is general about all MySQL variants (MariaDB, MySQL Cluster, … (not counting Drizzle)).
Now what is behind this survey? Well, I have a lot of stuff to do and MySQL is not my only responsibility. And I know that sometimes it can use some extra hands. Sometimes I get lucky and we have new beta packaged same day as it was released, other times it takes me weeks or even more than month before I’ll get to the updates. And I see several ways, how to make MySQL presence even better in openSUSE Build Service. But as always, it’s matter of manpower and time. As several people already responded, that they want to get involved, I’ll publish in next few days several posts about how you can help with various tasks around MySQL. So ti will be even better available, more polished and more awesome 😉
Other thing I was interested in was whether somebody actually uses the non-core stuff. Whether it is great to have it around or whether I should just stop doing it and spend more time on the core stuff.
First of my doubts was whether having server:database:UNSTABLE repository is a good thing… Well, so far not many people responded that they use it, but quite a lot of people responded that they want the latest & coolest stuff. I can imagine this means MySQL Community Server 5.6 or MariaDB 5.3. Both of them can be found in server:database:UNSTABLE. So I think this one I should keep around, but I should be definitely more verbose about what we already have.
Second doubt was whether anybody actually uses MySQL Cluster we added to openSUSE in 11.4. So far I’m not really convinced. But survey just started, so we will see. If nobody uses it, I may drop it after 12.1 from Factory and have it just in additional repository. We will see, how survey will end.
So thank you for filling in the survey and expect some more information about how you can help to improve MySQL presence in openSUSE soon 😉