Facebook has far proven to become the largest PHP and MySQL site on the internet. But don’t let it fool you, there are many systems that comprise in Facebooks world, and Java, C++, and other languages all play a part in this multi-tiered system. With Oracle buying out / taking control over MySQL, many have decided to part ways, mostly with a database called MariaDB, which is very similar and has many ties. It seems that an upgrade to MySQL 5.6 is in the road map for both Facebook and Twitter.
So how is the largest website based on something as open source and PHP / MySQL? In my honest opinion, the efficiency of scale is gravely smaller than the ability to develop, produce, and market a website in the first place. So much emphasis on efficiency is identical to perfecting your art project and never putting it up for sale. Think of all the Microsoft .NET projects out there that are brutally ridiculous to compile, load development instances, and integrate changes by launching new DLL’s. It’s ridiculous!
Sure, good programming practices make the best and most flexible systems in terms of upgrading and building for your future. But at the end of the day, it is about producing a product and being able to maintain it, no matter what the practice. This might all sound backwards and foreign to those Ruby on Rails perfectionists and .NET enthusiasts. But really, technology is pretty simple, and it’s not the Framework that makes the difference, it’s the ability to create something with the tools in hand!
So, how has Facebook scaled using PHP and MySQL? They worked hard and produced something that people cannot live without. Simple!
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