Make MariaDB a first class citizen

[brianteeman]

As more and more hosts are serving MariaDB instead of mysql I would like to see us be more prominent about our support for MariaDB to the non-technical user.

For example when you install Joomla it offers mysql and mysql pdo as the database type. I just got off a call from someone who thought they needed to find a different web host because they only had MariaDB as an option.

Yes I understand that when we say mysql in the installer we are referring to the database driver and that both mysql and MariaDB use the same driver. But to the non technical user, as I saw, they are expecting to be able to select MariaDB.

Maybe we just need to update the string that is displayed to avoid confusion.

[rdeutz]

I would update the LANGUAGE string.

[brianteeman]

Like this?

[muhme]

Wouldn't we write 'MariaDB' first and then 'MySQL' second?

[brianteeman]

whatever is decided I am happy either way - I just want MariaDB to appear in the list. I nawait a decision of the team

[drmenzelit]

The Joomla Maintainer Team decided at the 02.09.2026 meeting to accept this feature.
Change to “MariaDB or MySQL (MySQLi)” and “MariaDB or MySQL (PDO)” string now, make split (own MariaDB layer) later after a clean concept.

[brianteeman]

I assume this is too late for 6.2?

[drmenzelit]

According to the release plan language freeze for 6.2 is in beta 3

[brianteeman]

Pull request done #48369