MariaDB software

The intent is to always pack the latest stable MariaDB software into Fedora.

MariaDB series

MariaDB 10.0 - until Fedora 23
MariaDB 10.1 - until Fedora 26 ( still available modules: F28, F29 - F31)
MariaDB 10.2 - until Fedora 28 ( modules: F29 )
MariaDB 10.3 - current ( F29 - Rawhide ) ( modules: F28 )
MariaDB 10.4 - so far modules only ( modules: F29 - Rawhide )

Modules: From F28 there ale also MariaDB modules available.
If you need different MariaDB version, than the one which is available in the base Fedora, modules are just the right solution!

MariaDB versions

I (the MariaDB and MySQL maintainer) strongly recommend to always use the latest updates.

There is a lot of work being done in both Fedora and by upstream developers.
New version of MariaDB is released approximately every month or two.
The packaging process usually takes from a few days up to two weeks, depends on issues encountered.

Connectors

Beginning from Fedora 28, mariadb-connector-c is the default package that should be used by all of the client software.
This package now contains the client library, while it was removed from the mariadb package.

Also mariadb-connector-c-devel package should contain everything needed for building the client software against mariadb.
Only very very few cases needs mariadb-devel package, such as custom server plugins or embedded applications.

For ODBC there is mariadb-connector-odbc package.
For Java there is mariadb-java-client package.

Other software

Since MariaDB is very compatible with MySQL, most of the mysql connectors could be used with MariaDB and vice versa.

Parallel Installability

I also try to keep combinations of MariaDB and MySQL installable (f.e. mariadb-server and community-mysql client).
The goal is to let user develop and test his application with any combination on the same machine. In the internet the client ussually don't know or care to which release of the server they are connecting, as long as it works - thanks to the same API.

There is currently one known bug which you should keep in mind: #1628989.
It says you can't use mysqlcheck (or mysql_upgrade) while having different client and server installed.