If MSSQL really wanted to become more mainstream they'd release a properly free version to compete with MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL.

I've not used MSSQL since 2015/2016 and haven't missed much.

Now I live in the OLAP space so I think of it far, far less.

Money here means this won’t happen.

Sure, greenfield does not use MSSQL but there is a ton of companies stuck with MSSQL that will continue to have to fork over big licensing money.

Which will mean it’ll stay irrelevant still.

	▲	cafard 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Irrelevant to whom? The accounting department at my old employer, which uses Great Plains/Dynamics for accounts payable? Next time I'm downtown I'll tell the comptroller that she should get with the program and run AP out of Maria DB.
	▲	stackskipton 3 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Which Microsoft is fine with, they bought Postgres sharding company and Azure supports all the popular DBs so they still get their money.
	▲	razakel 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		SQL Server is hardly an also-ran.