A beta of the next major release of the open source database MySQL was released last Monday, and it looks like all the missing enterprise functionality has been added at once to MySQL 5.0, which is scheduled for mid-2005.
According to an Evans Data Corporation survey, MySQL is the most widely used open source database, with Firebird (Borland's open sourced Interbase database) and PostgreSQL in second and third place.
The major new features in MySQL are stored procedures, triggers and views. Although that is nothing new to the database world, it is brandnew to MySQL.
The new features make MySQL a more interesting option for enterprises who want to cut back database licensing costs. We expect MySQL's market share to increase further, and it will to become a strong competitor in the relational database market as this will change the perception of MySQL in the market, and eliminate the only excuse that enterprises have against it: it now has stored procedures, triggers and views, there is a cluster version, and there is a heavy-duty OLTP/OLAP version which is SAP-certified and used by many large companies around the world.
There is a lot of information available on the new features at MySQL's Technical Resources page. And if you are interested in a feature comparison of MySQL versions 3 and 4 with e.g. Oracle, check out MySQL's feature comparison tool.