MySQL 5.0 Ready for Primetime

The long-awaited 5.0 release of MySQL has arrived to bring the free open source database up to par with its pricey enterprise rivals. New features include stored procedures, triggers and views, along with support for the ANSI SQL standard to ensure compatibility with other database systems.

Such features were once limited to expensive offerings from Oracle and IBM. Stored procedures enable administrators to embed business logic directly into the database to improve performance. Trigers enforce rules at the database level, while Views secure protected information.

MySQL 5.0 additionally includes a new Instance Manager to assist users in starting and stopping a database, as well as editing configuration files and remotely reading error logs.

"We are quite proud to deliver this new version of MySQL -- as it includes the most-requested features from our users, customers and partners," said Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB. Over 30 companies have pledged their support for the new release, including heavyweights Sun Microsystems, Red Hat and HP.

High-performance versions of MySQL database drivers for Java and Microsoft's .NET platform are bundled with version 5 to ensure true cross-platform support. The production release is available for Linux, Windows, Solaris, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, HP-UX, and a variety of other operating systems.