Kickstart is the archive extraction script, it doesn't connect to a database. It's also mentioned in the first point in the modal dialog which opens when you launch Kickstart. Assuming that you are talking about the restoration script, Akeeba Backup Installer, that's by design. The very important reasons we chose to do so:
- Joomla! 1.6 and later default to mysqli by default and actually require mysqli for optimal operation
- Modern PHP applications (e.g. all Nooku-based extensions) require the MySQLi driver
- The old mysql driver is no longer maintained and will be removed in the next minor release (5.4? 6.0? It's not clear yet...) of PHP.
- The old mysql driver doesn't support the features of MySQL 4.1 or later. Given than MySQL 4.1 was released in 2004 and no longer developed since 2 years ago and MySQL 5.0 also reaching end of life, any host not already using at least MySQL 5.0 should not be used. If you're using MySQL 5.x, there's no point using the deprecated mysql driver as it is much slower, uses much more memory and doesn't support features added in MySQL 4.1.
- Likewise, any host not offering the mysqli driver is most likely using ancient software on their server. This comes with a lot of security issues and the only sane thing to do is to either switch hosts or convince your host to upgrade.
I hope that explains why we have decided to default to mysqli :)
Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos
Lead Developer and Director
🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!
