I am a part time administrator of a couple of php/sql based web sites. I only have to directly access the database a few times a year when something goes wrong, during server upgrades, or when I occasionally do a bit of development and need to test some queries. I prefer using a GUI because it is usually more intuitive, and I make less mistakes than with the command line interfaces. I use MySQL workbench because I tried a couple of others and didn't like them. I had not noticed any significant incompatibility with Mariadb 10.x, so I would also like to know what those limitations are.
- what worries me more is a database server which is even open over TCP to the network
That does not need to be the case, I connect to my remote servers through an ssh tunnel, so there is no external database port open. it would be nice if this project had its own fork or similar GUI tool, but I imagine that it would be a difficult business case to take on the extra support and testing. --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus