Given that my hosting provider only offers MySQL and PostgreSQL, as the MariaDB & MySQL forks diverge this may become a problem (IMO). It would be nice to have a option to choose which DB server to use/include (MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL,others?) when downloading/installing XAMMP. This isn't meant as a discussion on why a given DB is better than the others (here is a third party comparison though, https://db-engines.com/en/system/MariaDB%3BMySQL%3BPostgreSQL), but more just on what is currently available with most hosting packages and being able to have a local XAMMP installation match a given developer's actual web hosting package offering.
I did notice that Bitnami has standalone MySQL and PostgreSQL modules (just not as part of the Xammp add-on options). How hard would it be to get Bitnami to add those SQL servers to their Xammp Add-on selection? Also there use to be a "Lite" version without filezilla, mercury, & tomcat (another stand-alone Bitnami module). Maybe bring that back? I can't find it anymore, but it is still referenced on the apachefriends.org website...
Maybe a good way to do it would be XAMMP (Apache & PHP) with Bitnami add-ons available for everything else. That is Tomcat, Database (MySQL, Maria DB, PostgreSQL, etc) Ruby, etc. To be honest I don't know how the window installer is packaged nor how hard what I'm suggesting would be. Thanks for reading and considering this suggestion.