How To Install MariaDB from Binary Tarballs on Ubuntu 13.10
Currently, MariaDB is a drop-in replacement for MySQL. This article describes the installation of MariaDB version 5.5.34 x86_64 on an Ubuntu 13.10 droplet. Binary tarballs are used for installation instead of the software repositories available through apt-get. A potential rationale for this choice would be to have complete control over the installed version of MariaDB.