Installing MySQL 5 Server on Ubuntu is a quick and easy process. It almost feels like it should be more difficult. Open a terminal window, and use the following command:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

If you are running PHP you will also need to install the php module for mysql 5:

sudo apt-get install php5-mysql

To create a new database, use the mysqladmin command:

mysqladmin create <databasename>

See, really easy!