General Installation Guidance For information on the MySQL Preference Pane, see Section 2.4.4, “Installing and Using the MySQL Preference Pane” . The immediately following sections contain the information necessary to choose, download, and verify your distribution. The instructions in later sections of the chapter describe how to install the distribution that you choose. For binary distributions, see the instructions at Section 2.2, “Installing MySQL on Unix/Linux Using Generic Binaries”  or the corresponding section for your platform if available. To build MySQL from source, use the instructions in Section 2.9, “Installing MySQL from Source” . MySQL platform support evolves over time; please refer to https://www.mysql.com/support/ supportedplatforms/database.html for the latest updates. 2.1 General Installation Guidance 2.1.1 Supported Platforms 2.1.2 Which MySQL Version and Distribution to Install When preparing to install MySQL, decide which version and distribution format (binary or source) to use. First, decide whether to install a development release or a General Availability (GA) release. Development releases have the newest features, but are not recommended for production use. GA releases, also called production or stable releases, are meant for production use. We recommend using the most recent GA release. The naming scheme in MySQL 8.0 uses release names that consist of three numbers and an optional suffix (for example,  mysql-8.0.1-dmr ). The numbers within the release name are interpreted as follows: •The first number ( 8 ) is the major version number. •The second number ( 0 ) is the minor version number. Taken together, the major and minor numbers constitute the release series number. The series number describes the stable feature set. •The third number ( 1 ) is the version number within the release series. This is incremented for each new bugfix release. In most cases, the most recent version within a series is the best choice. • dmr  indicates a development milestone release (DMR). MySQL development uses a milestone model, in which each milestone introduces a small subset of thoroughly tested features. From one milestone to the next, feature interfaces may change or features may even be removed, based on feedback provided by community members who try these early releases. Features within milestone releases may be considered to be of pre-production quality. Release names can also include a suffix to indicate the stability level of the release. Releases within a series progress through a set of suffixes to indicate how the stability level improves. The possible suffixes are: • rc  indicates a Release Candidate (RC). Release candidates are believed to be stable, having passed all of MySQL’s internal testing. New features may still be introduced in RC releases, but the focus shifts to fixing bugs to stabilize features introduced earlier within the series. •Absence of a suffix indicates a General Availability (GA) or Production release. GA releases are stable, having successfully passed through the earlier release stages, and are believed to be reliable, free of serious bugs, and suitable for use in production systems. Development within a series begins with DMR releases, followed by RC releases, and finally reaches GA status releases. 96