Hacker News Reader

> Because every single database vendor will try to lock down their users to their DBMS.

I mean, that already happens. It's quite rare to see someone migrate from one database to another. Even if they stuck to pure SQL for everything, it's still a pretty daunting process as Postgres SQL and MSSQL won't be the same thing.

View on HN

> It's quite rare to see someone migrate from one database to another.

I'm not discounting the level of effort involved, but I think the reason you don't see this often is because it is rare that simply changing DBMS systems is beneficial in and of itself.

And even if it was frictionless (ie: if we had discovered ORM Samarkanda), the real choices are so limited that even if you did it regularly, you would soon run out of DBMSs to try.

It would obviously be beneficial to go from super expensive to free (Postgres). But no one does - why? Because sql is just a veneer over otherwise two completely different things.

I migrated a database with some stored procedures from MSSQL Server to Oracle. Then lots of logic was added as stored procedures to the database. Then I migrated the same system to MySQL. Including the SP. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com