Can I switch to MariaDB with vb3.8?
 

Is vbulletin 3.8 compatible with MariaDB 10?
Will I run into any problems if I switch from MySQL 5.5 to MariaDB 10?

I'm using MariaDB on my vBulletin 4 installation and it works perfectly fine. MariaDB is basically just a MySQL fork. The functionality is exactly the same as MariaDB, you just keep using the same MySQL extension.

I am currently using mysql 5.5. So this means I should use mysql 5.5 + mariaDB 10? Or is there a minimum version for mariadb?

The difference between MariaDB 10 and 5.5 is that MariaDB 10 has new unique features and contains features ported over from MySQL 5.6. I don't think it matters if you use MariaDB 10 or 5.5, I would just use 5.5 though.

If vbulletin 3.8 is compatible with mysql 5.6 then I will just use mariadb 10.
But I have no clue if vb 3.8 is compatible with mysql 5.6
Does anyone know?

According to vBulletin.com:
You can always give it a shot, it shouldn't be too hard to downgrade in case it does not work.

You have a point there. I asked vb staff some time ago but they did not respond.

I'm running the latest MariaDB 5.5 on vB 3.8 without any issues.

Do you use 3.8.8 or 3.8.7?

As far as I remember, there are no query differences between 3.8.7 & 3.8.8.

(but its over a year since i did most of the changes, so I may have forgotton something).