Summary

Installing MySQL is not difficult. If you choose a binary distribution, which is recommended in most cases, it's a matter of pointing and clicking in Windows and a few simple commands in Unix. There are valid reasons for choosing a source distribution, though—perhaps MySQL is not yet available in binary on your platform, or you need to get the most out of MySQL by compiling it more optimally. Whatever your reason, with careful tweaking of the compile options, you can get a fast yet stable installation of MySQL.