[morkalork]

I used MS SQL and Oracle at my last job, but what's there to say about them? They've been around forever, are stable and get all the same table-stakes feature updates as everyone else. Start-ups avoid them like the plague because they're so damn expensive, you won't be running either on your phone or an embedded device like SQLite either.

[hinterlands]

I do think it's an SFBA / generational bubble. We have plenty of boring, expensive software projects that someone will always bring up in a HN thread. For example, every time there's a thread on PCB design, you have some folks talking about Cadence. What's there to say about Cadence? Well, first and foremost, it costs a lot. Otherwise, it lets you design PCBs. But there are people here who pay for it, use it, and want to talk about it.

[xyzzy123]

Right but having access to a Cadence license is considered "elite" (it means you are a Real Engineer), while having to use mssql server means you're kind of a schlub (who probably has to work for a real business, that makes money but is super boring, with no equity, among people who don't understand any of this status hierarchy at all).

[codeulike]

I work with charities and non-profits, they tend to use Microsoft stack and things like Salesforce due to the large charity discounts and readily available support. I get to work with nice people doing meaningful things.

[xyzzy123]

Sorry, parody probably doesn't come across well. I was trying to ridicule the kind of elitism that causes mssql to be "invisible" in many internet bubbles.

[codeulike]

haha sorry it just seemed such a plausible hn comment

[llm_nerd]

>Start-ups avoid them like the plague because they're so damn expensive

While in a way it's just a corollary on the expensive bit, the license compliance of the same becomes such a monumental hassle as well, and is just an enormous time waste for everyone involved. For everything you want to do there's a probing Microsoft or Oracle salesperson trying to shake you down a little harder.

Go with Postgres et al and you can be geographically distributing, horizontally and vertically scaling in a million ways, making whatever warm of cold standby or recovery system you want, and so on. Even when the pricing of the enterprise offerings were tolerable, the system around constantly extracting a pound of flesh is so overbearing it induces opposition.