For the past five years, I’ve been working with SQL server in some way, shape or form. I’ve neve r had to administer it, but have always had to wrangle some data out of it. Fortunately, they’ve made it simple for us Linux guys to get going with it, and I have to say that I’m impressed with what they’ve done. Now, most open-source aficionados will probably want to use a product that i s completely open-source like MariaDB or Postgres. So why would one consider a Microsoft product in the first place?
First, the developer versions are free. Second, depending on the scope of the project, the developer version can serve as a data backend for quite a while without hitting limits that would force one to upgrade to a professionally licensed version. Third, for a Microsoft tool, the command line interfaces and files fit right in with what I would normally be doing on any other stack, so I am not forced to use a GUI tool (or worse yet, an entire virtual machine) just to get a development setup going.
A final benefit is the fact that SQL server is the name of the game in many East Coast companies that are not startups. While this isn’t really an independent selling point, the fact that Microsoft has gone through some great lengths to make their product Linux-friendly is. Apple can’t claim this, as I still have to buy a Mac system to do any Cocoa/HighSierra/iOS development. So, as a contractor, I win by being able to branch out of Linux world and build solutions for companies beholden to the Microsoft stack. As a student or entry-level professional, I don’t limit myself to startups (which often don’t sport the same budget or talent as larger companies).
Now, this brings me to one negative. My first time testing a Linux install was a little convoluted. Following Microsoft’s documentation worked most of the time, but some snags were hit. Since moving to Arch primarily and using some of the well-maintained packages in the AUR, I have had a lot less trouble getting up and running. I don’t use Ubuntu or Fedora anymore, so I have not had the chance to run the program on either of those. I will write another short article in the future defining how the install process works on Arch, hopefully winning other developers over in the process.
