Is The Microsoft Stack Really More Expensive?

Re:Is The Microsoft Stack Really More Expensive? by rgrieselhuber on Monday September 07, 2009 @09:36AM (#809115)

Of all of Microsoft's technologies, I have considered SQL Server, because from what I've seen it is an extremely powerful database engine with really good BI tools. There are two reasons I don't use it though: 1) it would be prohibitively expensive (for me anyways) to use across dozens of nodes and 2) it means introducing Windows into my environment, which quickly becomes very expensive and a nuisance.

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Re:Is The Microsoft Stack Really More Expensive? by javery on Monday September 07, 2009 @09:44AM (#809123)

I agree completely, Windows isn't that expensive (look at the difference in EC2 pricing) but SQL Server is where they get you. It's not Oracle bad, but for a small startup it might as well be.

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Re:Is The Microsoft Stack Really More Expensive? by ams6110 on Monday September 07, 2009 @10:24AM (#809173)

I haven't really paid attention recently, but at a conference several years ago a former Microsoft sales rep said that nearly every "enterprise" product they sold required accompanying SQL Server licenses.

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Re:Is The Microsoft Stack Really More Expensive? by StrawberryFrog on Monday September 07, 2009 @10:51AM (#809208)

Most "enterprise" products are complex enough to need some complex backing store. A SQL server database is a natural choice for this in the MS world. Even TFS (source control and associated work item tracking, kitchen sink, etc.) is backed by one. This is not a bad thing, (e.g. you get atomic transactions from the DB), but it's interesting that most other source control systems are not backed by any relational database.

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Re:Is The Microsoft Stack Really More Expensive? by gaius on Monday September 07, 2009 @10:51AM (#809210)

A small startup would sign up to the BizSpark programme, tho'.

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Re:Is The Microsoft Stack Really More Expensive? by javery on Monday September 07, 2009 @01:49PM (#809479)

I am a BizSpark member and network partner and I agree it's a good program. The problem is that it's only for 3 years, so you still need to keep costs in mind.

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