MariaBD 10.x

[The Factor]

Is MariaDB 10.x Supported.  I hear its better performance wise.  My host will upgrade me to MySQL 5.6 or mariaDB 10.  They say I cant go backwards though, without a lot of server rework..  Once I tread down the MariaDB path I must not depart from it..  My forum is small 300 on at anytime max.  More like 200..

[vbgamer45]

Mysql 5.6 should work with SMF 2.0.x

Maria  DB seems to work as well
https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/mariadb-vs-mysql-compatibility/

[WadaNon]

MariaDB 10.x works fine for SMF. I have it installed in my server and it works as good as MySQL.
In the end is a matter of preferences.

[Kindred]

at the moment, it appears to work.

We do not, however, officially, support it at this time

[The Factor]

at the moment, it appears to work.

We do not, however, officially, support it at this time

Thanks Kindred.

Any thoughts on supporting it? 

I assume you support MySQL 5.x or higher as well.

[Kindred]

the official support for 2.0 is listed in the wiki, I believe.

The official support for 2.1 will be significantly more recent versions of software/OS

We may add MariaBD to the list eventually, but we are currently focused on getting the beta 2 out sooner rather than later

[LiroyvH]

Actually you can go back from MariaDB to mySQL.
You just can't go back to a lower version. Ex if you got MariaDB 10 and made fulltext InnoDB tables; you can go back to mySQL: but that will require a minimum version of 5.6. If you use regular tables, you may be able to get back to multiple 5.x versions of mySQL.

[青山 素子]

You just can't go back to a lower version. Ex if you got MariaDB 10 and made fulltext InnoDB tables; you can go back to mySQL: but that will require a minimum version of 5.6. If you use regular tables, you may be able to get back to multiple 5.x versions of mySQL.

In theory, you should be able to downgrade, but you'd need to dump the entire database first and then re-import it. Downgrading with the binary database files won't work.

As CoreISP noted, features in newer versions won't work in older, so you'll still need to watch out for those types of incompatibility.