I built 2 sites with xampp 5.6.3 on win10.
The sites are hosted on A2.
In Control Panel, it is easy to find the live mysql databases and work with them.
I guess I can't stay on xampp 5.6.3 forever.
So I looked into updating my dev machine to xampp 7.
Obviously the 1st thing that pops up is that xampp now comes bundled with mariadb instead of mysql.
I have done some reading and research. Monty, Oracle, daughter Maria, speed, etc.
As of 2018, it appears that the two systems are practically equivalent.
I'm not an expert, but not a total noob either.
If my local dev machine is updated to xampp 7 with mariadb, it makes sense that my live sites should also be transitioned similarly, right?
A2 gives almost no information on mariadb, which seems weird because their knowledgebase asset is pretty comprehensive.
I have found several tutes on how to change a local xampp dev machine from old xampp/mysql to new xampp/mariadb.
But I can't find a decent explanation of how this impacts live sites on A2, or best practices concerning live sites in my situation (where live sites are on mysql).
Can someone here explain the big picture? I'm not seeing it.
Is it possible to run xampp 7 with current version of mysql instead of mariadb?
Reasons why this could be an acceptable idea or a bad idea?
Link to analysis or tute?
Thx.