Re:10,000 customers? (Score 1)

No, MySQL AB did not stop providing binaries. The Debian folks were building their MySQL packages by themselves all the time before, MySQL AB has never provided DEBs for download. And as you can read on the MySQL 5.0 Download pages:

In contrast to the MySQL Enterprise Server, which receives both monthly rapid updates and quarterly service pack releases, there is no specific schedule for when a new version of the MySQL Community Server is released. While every bug fix that has been applied to the Enterprise Server will also be available in the subsequent Community Server release, there will be source-only releases in between full (source and binary) Community builds. So while the latest published community sources will always be available from the Source Downloads Section, the binaries listed on this page may be from a previous release. In any case, full binaries for all our supported operating systems are and will remain conveniently available from this page.