According to this new post to the PHPClasses.org blog today, the core PHP development team has put plans in motion to try to remove the original MySQL extension from the default PHP installation.

PHP core developers are planning to kill the PHP original MySQL extension. If you are using MySQL in your PHP applications for a long time, this may seriously affect you.

Right now it's just in the proposal states (as suggested by Philip Olson) but, if fully acted upon, could have large implications on a number of PHP applications currently using MySQL. For now, though, Philip is only suggesting an education of the PHP user base that they should migrate to either pdo_mysql or mysqli for the future of their apps. Most of the comments following in the mailing list thread are supportive of the effort. They note that it won't be an easy task and, in the end, will still be a "bitter pill" for developers to swallow when the switch is finally thrown.

For the full thread of this discussion, see here and keep clicking through on the "next in thread" link.