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Comment by joosters | Hacker News Reader

It's not just the financial costs...

It remains to be seen whether SQL Server on Linux will require less care and feeding than on Windows.

Being able to yum/apt-get install and edit a config file or run a couple quick commands is a lot easier than needing to figure out how to feed SETUP.EXE the right arguments and deal with a mess of arcane windows CLI tools + a mix of PowerShell to configure SQL Server.

Automating the installation of PostgreSQL on Linux with ansible is a couple lines of tasks in a playbook + a template for postgresql.conf and pg_hba.conf. Automating the installation of SQL Server on Windows (as well as the installation of Windows in general if you aren't using System Center) is a huge pain in the ass.

That's enough less "care and feeding" for me.

Looks like there's chocolatey packages for the express versions: https://chocolatey.org/packages?q=sqlserver

Could you tell me how much RAM does sql server consume on Linux?

my experience of running sql server on windows is basically it is reasonably painless.

about the most annoying thing about running windows is updates as they mostly want to restart the box.

If you delay your updates, it can take 40 + minutes to restart once you decide to install them

The only issue I've ever had with MSSQL is that the Express version comes configured out-of-the-box with a set of defaults that make it nearly useless. TCP/IP connections are turned off, and you have to go through and set all the protocols to use the normal SQL port.

I've seen SQL Express used basically like SQLite a number of times, where it's only being accessed by a local installation of something.

Also if you're installing it manually (and thus having to configure it manually) the odds are good that you're a developer in which case it'll also only be accessed locally.

It's a sane default to not listen to the network. A lot of users won't need it. Those that do can enable it.

The port thing is handled automatically when you have your network clients working correctly.

For the record I'm a SQLite/Postgres guy, the only reason I even know about the port thing is having to help a customer troubleshoot some software that uses SQL express a few weeks ago. Definitely not a MS defender normally, but your complaints are really silly.

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