Although MySQL 5.1 was released in December of 2008, Sun Microsystems isn't wasting any time moving forward with a number of new and exciting enhancements for its next release, MySQL 5.4. The first item of note is that the MySQL Server will be returning to a release early/often paradigm. So, instead of waiting on a full set of previously agreed upon features to be ready, the goal will now be to adhere to time-controlled releases that include all features that are ready by an agreed-upon beta date, with any features not fully 'baked' simply rolling to the next release. This being the case, MySQL 5.4 won't include some large new features like the Falcon transactional storage engine and the new backup utility, but it will include a number of very desirable enhancements that help your database-driven systems scale better and run faster in many cases. Let's take a look at what's included...

More...