As major versions are really the only time to consider changing default settings perhaps getting onto the following MDEV soon. https://jira.mariadb.org/browse/MDEV-7635 My main objective is to move the required configuration file down to approximately 0 settings and to work for the majority of people. The sql_mode will cause pain because years of bad practice haven't been fixed, however MySQL-5.7 has gone first and common frameworks are beginning to fix their implementations. They are usually fairly simple fixes to work with the sql_mode of "ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY STRICT_TRANS_TABLES NO_ZERO_IN_DATE NO_ZERO_DATE ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION". Finding/making some documentation to describe how to fix this would be good so the google answer doesn't become set sql_mode=''. Lots of suggestions here model MySQL-5.7 defaults with a few of my additions. Please let the list know which changes you agree with, disagree with (any why).