MariaDB 5.3 is now GA

This is another, in-case-you-missed-it, but it is definitely worth mentioning again:

MariaDB 5.3 is now GA

So, if you’re using MariaDB 5.1 or 5.2, I’d definitely recommend upgrading to the new MariaDB 5.3.

Also, if you’re a Windows user using MySQL 5.1, I’d highly consider making the switch to MariaDB 5.3 due to all of the Windows-specific improvements in it.

MariaDB 5.3 Enhancements:

• Subquery optimizations
• Semi-join subquery optimizations
• Non-semi-join optimizations
• Subquery Cache
• Subquery Optimizations Map
• Optimizations for derived tables and views
• Disk access optimization
• Join optimizations
• Index Merge improvements
• Optimizer control
• NoSQL-style interfaces
• Group commit for the binary log
• Replication and binary logging enhancements
• Microsecond support for NOW() and timestamp, time, and datetime columns
• Windows performance improvements
• And a number of other general improvements

MariaDB 5.3 Windows-Specific Performance improvements include:

• Backported Windows performance patches from MySQL 5.5
• Asynchronous IO in XtraDB is redesigned and is now faster, due to the use of IO completion ports
• Additional durability option for XtraDB : innodb_flush_method can now be O_DSYNC, like on Unixes. (The effect of using this option is that the log file is opened with FILE_FLAG_WRITETHROUGH, and FlushFileBuffers() is not done. This may improve speed in write-heavy scenarios.)
• A new Windows MSI installer
• Includes a GUI-tool, HeidiSQL

All of the above, and more are documented in further detail here:

http://kb.askmonty.org/en/what-is-mariadb-53

You can download it here:

http://downloads.askmonty.org/mariadb/5.3/

(And just for reference, if running MariaDB you should probably keep your eye on the new MariaDB 5.5 too (5.5.20 was alpha, 5.5.21 is now beta), benchmarks here).

Hope this helps.