Where We Are
We can all agree that the MySQL ecosystem isn’t in great shape right now. Take a look at Julia’s blog post [Analyzing the Heartbeat of the MySQL Server: A Look at Repository Statistics], which confirms what many of us have felt: Oracle isn’t as committed to MySQL and its ecosystem as it once was. But here’s the thing—everyone has a different idea about what to do next. Some folks think we should wait and see what Oracle does, and not rock the boat. Others are ready to hard fork the whole thing and start fresh with a new name.
Here’s what we’re thinking: let’s start with the stuff we actually agree on. Get people working together on the things that matter, and then we can tackle the more complex issues down the road.
What We’re Proposing
We want to create a Group of MySQL Enthusiasts – a non-profit where companies and individuals can jump in and contribute however they want.
Our mission: To grow the MySQL community as a vendor-neutral organization. We run conferences, support developers, fund projects, and build tools—keeping MySQL strong, secure, and open source for everyone who depends on it.
That means helping the community thrive AND helping all the commercial players in this space build their businesses.
To gather everyone’s feedback, we’re organizing two summits:
- San Francisco Summit for MySQL Community, January 14th, 2026 [Summit for MySQL Community, USA Edition — January 14, 2026 | Percona Community]
- EU Summit for MySQL Community, February 2nd, 2026 [Summit for MySQL Community, EU Edition — February 2, 2026 | Percona Community]
As much as we’d love to invite all users, space is limited, so these are invite-only events. Please submit your registration if you’d like to attend.
Questions to Resolve
At these summits, we’d like to hold a collective brainstorming session to answer a set of key questions:
How can we enable the community and commercial ecosystem around MySQL? Let’s help everyone succeed—from individual contributors to businesses building on MySQL.
How about organizing a vendor-neutral conference? We’re thinking of “The Conference for MySQL Community”—not a single vendor’s show, but a place for everyone to come together.
What if we supported local meetups and conferences? Similar to how the PostgreSQL community operates, we could help local groups get organized and stay connected.
Should we promote tools and developers? We could support the tools that make MySQL better and easier to use, including MySQL connectors and support in programming languages and development environments.
Do we need better community resources? We could set up spaces for people to coordinate and communicate—Slack channels, forums, whatever works.
Could we build a community portal? Think postgresql.org, but for MySQL. A place where you can find everything: service providers, tools, extensions, cloud services and other resources.
What’s our code maintenance strategy? This is the big one, and honestly, we can figure it out as we go. Maybe Oracle lets us help contribute. Maybe we maintain a tracking fork. Or maybe we end up doing a hard fork with a new name. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
How do we handle bugs and security concerns? Can we enable a public bug database (where content isn’t restricted by Oracle) and establish a security process where all stakeholders are informed and can ensure security for their customers?
If you have more questions, submit them in the comments, or you can reach me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vadimtk/
Let’s connect and discuss how we should move forward!
About the Author
Vadim TkachenkoVadim Tkachenko co-founded Percona in 2006 and leads Percona Labs, which focuses on technology research and performance evaluations of Percona’s and third-party products. Vadim’s expertise in LAMP performance and multi-threaded programming help optimize MySQL and InnoDB internals to take full advantage of modern hardware. He also co-authored the book High Performance MySQL: Optimization, Backups, and Replication 3rd Edition.
