Which MySQL Fork/Version to Pick?

Question

As most of you know, Sun acquired MySQL (and later Oracle acquired Sun), and during these acquisitions, there were a lot of FUD in MySQL community which resulted in creation of

Answer 1

Personally, I think that everyone who needs to set up a new MySQL installation today should be using MariaDB. MariaDB is based on the latest MySQL 5.1, actively maintained (including fixes for bugs reported against MySQL) and packages Percona XtraDB / InnoDB plugin.

I don't even know if "fork" accurately describes Maria, since they are committed to keeping up with current releases of MySQL.

In short: MariaDB 5.1 = MySQL 5.1 + Percona XtraDB + additional useful patches + active development and maintenance

Update late 2011- May 2012: I switched from MariaDB to Percona Server to get to MySQL 5.5 but I intend on switching back once the Maria team has a stable 5.5 based release. I think that everyone who needs to set up a new MySQL installation today should be running Percona Server. If you are using SSDs, you *must* run Percona Server.

2013-2018: Happily ran Percona server 5.6 this whole time.

2018: upgraded to Percona server 5.7 and then almost immediately to MySQL 8.0. [ At this point, I am not knowledgable enough to talk about the differences between MySQL 8, Percona Server 5.7 and MariaDB 10 and I can't say why you might want to choose one over the others ]