MS is not changing their tack because there is a vibrant big business community with budgets that depend on MS SQL and it fills the need.
Which Open Source DB does everything that MS Enterprise SQL does and why aren’t you using that instead?
Which Open Source DB does everything that MS Enterprise SQL does and why aren’t you using that instead?
They shouldn't fear a competitor that does everything they do. They should fear a bunch competitors each doing a set of features a given customer needs.
SQL Server is Microsoft's best software product, but why would I even bother with it since both MySQL and PostgreSQL do everything I need from an RDBMS, for a tiny fraction of the TCO and with comparable if not better performance and much better platform support? And why would I even consider it when non-relational datastores are a much better fit for most of my data? It makes sense if you are into Windows, but makes no sense whatsoever if you are not.
I used to think the replacement wouldn't have to do everyone MSSQL does - after all, nobody uses all of the features. But getting a core subset often isn't enough either - for example, Windows Azure SQL Database supports a core subset of features and datatypes, but I still constantly hear people say it's not enough to migrate their apps.
Besides that, Microsoft has pretty well pissed off all but the most entrenched developers.
This does suck for small/mid sized businesses though. :/