I am about to start learning mysql and I would like to know which is the best version and where is the best place to get it from.
5.1 is just about out of beta, so I would probably go ahead and start with it. Get it or the current release (5.0) from: http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html#downloads As far as basic functions, they are going to be about the same. 5.1 has some better back end features that come into play when you are tuning a database, or doing some advanced builds. Either 5.0 or 5.1 would be perfectly subtable to learn mysql with.