MySQL (pronounced ‘My S-Q-L’ or sometimes ‘my sequel) is a popular open-source Database Management System.

MySQL source is made available under the terms of the GNU General Public licence and under a variety of commercial agreements for larger organisations.

MySQL is often the DBMS of choice for free software projects such as Wordpress, Joomla! and phpBB but is also used for major world-wide systems such as Google and Facebook.

MySQL is very popular with web applications. This is because of its accessibility (i.e. cheap or free to use), it is feature-rich. Another major factor in its widespread use is the ease with which it can be used with popular internet programming languages, notably PHP and Perl.

Although originally a UNIX/Linux based product, there are versions available for a variety of other platforms such as Windows or Macintosh.

Administration of MySQL can be performed using a command line interface but it is a whole lot easier using an interface application such as the splendid phpadmin.