Drop support for MariaDB

[Rodolfo]

Describe your feature request
Chevereto currently supports both MySQL and MariaDB, as these systems were once nearly identical. However, as both have evolved, MariaDB and MySQL have diverged significantly, particularly in how they handle data and queries critical to modern Chevereto functionality. To maintain performance and simplify development, MariaDB support will be dropped in the next major version (Chevereto 5).

Where did you see this?
This decision comes directly from the increasing complexity and cost of supporting two diverging database systems. In the interest of supporting both, we are limiting our database scope to the shared common functionality and we aren't getting the most of the database layer.

Community interest
The usage statistics clearly favor MySQL over MariaDB, making this change a practical necessity. It's evident that the game is already decided.

 

[s-f-r-j]

Most of shared hosting environments are sing MariaDB (cPanel hosting, etc).
The way i see it, this will be problematic for many.
Good luck.

 

[Rodolfo]

@s-f-r-j

Both databases are free, and many providers offer support for MySQL, MariaDB, and others. Unfortunately, some hosting providers focus on specific software which can limit flexibility for other use cases. It gets problematic when they market their offering as general purpose hosting but in reality is just WordPress hosting.

For Chevereto, it's important to build around our needs rather than be restricted by external limitations. If a provider doest’t support MySQL 8, it may be worth exploring options that better meet modern requirements.

 

[user_4735f]

In that case, you need to provide guidance for users currently running MariaDB systems on how to migrate to MySQL before completely dropping support.

 

[Rodolfo]

@user_4735f

That's a valid concern, and we'll make sure to document the migration process clearly. It's also worth noting that backup tools like mysqldump and mariadbdump have diverged, so we'll likely need to implement a separate dump/restore mechanism regardless.