Sun has announced the official release of MySQL 5.1, a new version of the popular open source database software. Although Sun has declared that this version is ready for widespread adoption in production environments, MySQL creator Michael Widenius says that it has “fatal bugs” that seriously undermine the quality of the release.

The last major production release of MySQL was version 5.0, which launched in October 2005. MySQL 5.1 has been under development for a long time and includes some significant improvements such as a new plugin API, support for row-based replication, and table partitioning.

In a personal blog entry, Widenius describes some of the problems with the new features and warns users to exercise caution. He believes that it was irresponsible to release 5.1 in its current condition and says that it doesn’t deserve the “generally available” (GA) mark that is used to signify production-ready MySQL releases.

“We still have 20 known and tagged crashing and wrong result bugs in 5.1 [and] 35 more if we add the known crashing bugs from 5.0 that are likely to also be present in 5.1,” he wrote. “It’s of course impossible to get all issues fixed, but we should at least have tried to ensure that all issues important to a lot of MySQL developers and MySQL users should have been discussed, fixed and/or addressed in a public manner! We should also never have a single serious crashing/wrong data bug in a GA release.”

Microsoft has released a new wave of Windows Live services that adds more social-networking qualities to its set of online services.

The company unveiled last month a plan to add Facebook-like qualities to its set of online services, which include e-mail, calendaring, instant-messaging, photo-storage and sharing and collaboration services, among others. At the time, the company said the new services would be available to users before the end of the year.

They include Windows Live Groups, a service for letting teams, clubs or other groups of people collaborate and engage in online discussions; Windows Live Photos, a new photo-storage and sharing service; Windows Live Profile, a way for people to share information about themselves with more than 50 partner sites; and Windows Live People, which allows users to store and manage Windows Live contacts.

Starting on Thursday, anyone can download the Service Pack 2 beta for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft said on Tuesday.

Any Vista user interested in trying out the update will be able to do so through a Customer Preview Program on Microsoft’s TechNet Web site, said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows product management, in a blog post.

He encouraged most Vista users to wait until the final release of the service pack, scheduled for the first half of 2009. But technology enthusiasts, developers and IT pros might want to try out the software and offer feedback, he said.

Islamic extremists are being instructed on how to use the popular video-sharing site YouTube as a way to disseminate propaganda videos, a U.S.-based terrorism monitor said on Tuesday.

Militants are being encouraged to use the online site through postings on other Islamic forums on the Internet, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.

Last week, an extremist authored step-by-step instructions on posting video to YouTube, which he described as “one of the most famous and biggest international sites that publish sections of videos from all over the world.”

The posting encourages readers to post scenes of Western forces coming under attack to, it says, “shame the Crusaders by publishing clips of videos showing their losses, which they hid for a long time.”

On Wednesday, News Corp’s online social network will make video clips from its members’ pages available for viewing on mobile devices including the BlackBerry Bold, Palm Centro, Motorola Q9, LG Voyager, Nokia N95 and Samsung Instinct.

Members will be able to look at video on their own homepages as well as friends’ pages. They also will be able to view professionally produced video from TMZ, the celebrity news and gossip website owned by Time Warner Inc; the National Hockey League; National Geographic magazine; satirical newspaper The Onion and others.

The free service will be supported by advertising. MySpace and many other companies are trying to exploit the small but growing mobile advertising market.