Database Professionals usually get proficient in one RDBMS and tend to learn to enjoy working with that platform. They often get defensive and protective as well, defending the flaws in "their" product, even while writing code to get around those same flaws. And like many others, I'm certainly not above poking fun at other platforms, especially Oracle. They don't seem to mind poking fun at SQL Server, so what comes around ....

I saw an intesting blog post and debate on SQLBlog asking if SQL Server was keeping up with MySQL.

And I thought "Ha!" (the sarcastic, I can't believe you asked this because SQL Server is far ahead of MySQL)

It's not that I don't think MySQL is a good product; on the contrary, I think it's a nice product for what it's intended to do. Lots of large companies, Google and Amazon among them, use MySQL to handle some big loads. But it's not the same type of platform as SQL Server, which is broad, wide, and inclusive in its featureset. SSIS, SSNS, SSBS, SSRS, and all the other acronyms are things not included with MySQL.

At least not yet.

It's always easier for someone to build a competitor to build a new one. You have something to copy and you can learn from the mistakes of the original. So I wouldn't be surprised to have MySQL catching up in many ways with SQL Server.

But that's not to say that we couldn't learn a few things from MySQL. There are any number of features that might make sense to borrow from MySQL, Oracle, or any other platform and implement in SQL Server. I think SQL Server is already the best platform, but there's definitely room to add more features.

And improve the overall quality as well. That's one reason I'd like to an R2 release in 2 years (2010) that addresses many of the issues with current features rather than another new version in 2011. In the meantime, I hope to see a better service model and more consistent service packs.

Steve Jones

PS: Vote for Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2005. Right now there are no plans to release it. We need your vote so Microsoft will build it.

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