MySQL vs MariaDB
As you probably know, when Oracle bought Sun Microsystems at the same time they got MySQL that was being developed by them, and for that reason MySQL is no longer part of the free and open source space, but you don’t have to be worried, now we have MariaDB, which is totally compatible with MySQL.
MariaDB is a fork of MySQL, that was done by the developers to keep it free under the GNU GPL (General Public License), a widely used free software license that guarantees end users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software, the GPL at the moment of the written of this article is on GPL version 3.
If you consider that particular point in time when the fork was actually done, both are exactly the same. Something that is also true is that from that point they will evolve completely different, one pushed by the Oracle developers and the other by the Open Source community.
Database Management System (DBMS)
MariaDB (as well as MySQL) is not just a database; it is also its own DBMS (Database Management System), that means it includes the necessary tools to make it able to create, manage, and secure databases.
Where to go next?
Now that you know a little bit more about MySQL and MariaDB, you can move forward to learn even more about this powerful tool, here you are a couple of articles covering the installation and also the essentials of working with MariaDB.