Unless you have been provided with a working copy of MySQL from your ISP or employer, the first step in using MySQL is to install MySQL on your local machine or server.

MySQL is available pre-compiled and packaged for a wide variety of platforms including Microsoft Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, and Mac OS X to name a few.

The installation process varies by platform but generally involves downloading an installer or compressed archive, extracting or executing the downloaded file, and then configuring and starting the MySQL server. Once the MySQL server is successfully installed and configured, you can download and install the MySQL GUI tools to manage and query your new server.

In the sections that follow we will explain the process described above with regards to the more popular platforms used with MySQL, namely Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

All binary and source versions of MySQL are available at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/. We strongly recommend you download the latest stable version of MySQL that is available for your platform (currently MySQL 5.0.X, which this userguide is based on).

This chapter will deal with installation from pre-compiled binaries only and it is recommended that you download the same. If you want information on compiling and installing MySQL from source code, please refer to the MySQL Installation Using a Source Distribution section of the MySQL Reference Manual.

The binaries you download will depend on the platform you intend to use. For specific information please refer to the appropriate section that follows.