Mysql.pm and DBD::mysql implement two different approaches to
communicate with an mysql server. DBD::mysql is built upon the DBI,
the generic Perl Database Interface. It brings you an identical
interface to a broad variety of databases and is in this regard
comparable to ODBC.

The advantage of the DBI approach is portability and interoperability.
Mysql.pm is the elder species.  It was written before DBI was
available but inspired by an early draft of the DBI specification.
As has been been circulating longer it are more mature and pretty
stable. It is also more complete than DBD::mysql.

As of version 5, this module *only* works with mysql, not MariaDB, and
is thus not a suitable upgrade path for those using MariaDB.

Homepage:
https://metacpan.org/release/DBD-mysql
