I generally use the latest Xampp/php version available for local development work to get a very early warning of any future ZC issues as php steadily gets tightened-up, so regularly export/import my varias dbs across different Xampp installations.

The latest and future Xampp uses mariaDB instead of mysql.

There are a couple of threads already regarding issues with mariaDB, maybe...
In fact the latest Xampp to be released with mariaDB was quickly followed by a bug-fix release.

While I don't intend to upgrade now from the last version of Xampp with mysql until it confirmed as a non-event, do any of the cognoscenti that inhabit this forum have any comments on this tendency of replacing mysql (that appears to be not just restricted to Xampp)?

i.e. Any other issues that people have come across with this?