The instructions at: https://www.mariadbtutorial.com/getting-started/install-mariadb/ link to https://downloads.mariadb.org/. On a Windows machine and at the time of writing, this ultimately redirects to here: https://mariadb.org/download/?t=mariadb&p=mariadb&r=11.0.0&os=windows&cpu=x86_64&pkg=zip&m=xtom_ams which looks like this:

Clicking "Download" unexpectedly fetches a zip file contrary to the instructions with no apparent way to select an MSI. Internet searches lead to the same dead end.

It was only after giving up and returning later with fresh eyes that I realised that an Alpha release had been selected by default for which the Package Type is hidden because only a zip is available. Upon selecting a different version the Package Type box appeared defaulted to MSI and all was good.

Proposed Solution: The download page should default to a version with an installer that matches the installation instructions.

Alternative Solution: Change the instructions from saying "and select the latest version to download" to something like "and select a stable version to download" (with the emphasis). Also ensure the Package Type is always shown (as it is for 99% of versions) so that there's a hint that there might be MSIs available on that page for other versions and so the user is less likely to unwittingly download a format they didn't want.

If you don't feel this is a problem I suggest viewing logs to see how many people download the Alpha zip file before downloading the RC MSI later.