Ingres Is Not Competing with MySQL because...

MySQL doesn't have stored procedures!

Holy cow!

Really!

It does in version 5.0!

Ingres stored procedures do not allow you to return a result set.
So I cannot get around the MAJOR limitation (one of the MAJOR limitation, for there are several) where the command:

help table tableName

doesn't run through a JDBC or ODBC connection. Why? No idea! So I thought I'd try this:

create procedure sp_help (objectName as varchar(255) ) as

BEGIN

  select column_name from $ingres.iicolumns where table_name = :objectName

END

But no, won't work (but does betray which database I learnt first). Can only select into a local variable and cannot output it into anything. This means that Ingres procedures are design to execute business rules and retain data integrity. This puts the business rules on the database server where they do not belong, at all, ever. So take away the primary function of stored procedures and you are left with nothing. Ingres doesn't have real stored procedures. MySQL version 5.0 does. And it's built in help commands run through JDBC/ODBC etc.
No limitations there.

Ingres is not long for this world, either that or release 4.0 will be so different from release 3.0 that it brings it into the 21st century.

Throw in the speed gains you get from MySQL, the ease of administration and configuration, the choices and the huge support network, I'd agree with CA that Ingres is not competing with MySQL, MySQL is so much better.

The worm and MySQL

By the way the worm that exploits MySQL is not a hole in MySQL but a hole in how it is installed. The same thing can be done with Ingres, you just need the super user password for a windows installation and you're away. You can dump blobs to a local file as well.

Simply avoid an easy to guess root password, do not open port 3306 to the internet, do not have the root able to login from anywhere but the localhost, any of these will stop it.