MariaDB 5.3 is now GA(Comptitor of MySQL)

MariaDB 5.3 is now GA

This is another, in-case-you-missed-it, but it is definitely worth mentioning again:
MariaDB 5.3 is now GA
So, if you’re using MariaDB 5.1 or 5.2, I’d definitely recommend upgrading to the new MariaDB 5.3.
Also, if you’re a Windows user using MySQL 5.1, I’d highly consider making the switch to MariaDB 5.3 due to all of the Windows-specific improvements in it.
MariaDB 5.3 Enhancements:

• Subquery optimizations
• Semi-join subquery optimizations
• Non-semi-join optimizations
• Subquery Cache
• Subquery Optimizations Map
• Optimizations for derived tables and views
• Disk access optimization
• Join optimizations
• Index Merge improvements
• Optimizer control
• NoSQL-style interfaces
• Group commit for the binary log
• Replication and binary logging enhancements
• Microsecond support for NOW() and timestamp, time, and datetime columns
• Windows performance improvements
• And a number of other general improvements

MariaDB 5.3 Windows-Specific Performance improvements include:

• Backported Windows performance patches from MySQL 5.5
• Asynchronous IO in XtraDB is redesigned and is now faster, due to the use of IO completion ports
• Additional durability option for XtraDB : innodb_flush_method can now be O_DSYNC, like on Unixes. (The effect of using this option is that the log file is opened with FILE_FLAG_WRITETHROUGH, and FlushFileBuffers() is not done. This may improve speed in write-heavy scenarios.)
• A new Windows MSI installer
• Includes a GUI-tool, HeidiSQL

All of the above, and more are documented in further detail here:
http://kb.askmonty.org/en/what-is-mariadb-53
You can download it here:
http://downloads.askmonty.org/mariadb/5.3/
(And just for reference, if running MariaDB you should probably keep your eye on the new MariaDB 5.5 too (5.5.20 was alpha, 5.5.21 is now beta), benchmarks here).