[sharadov]

SQL Server was pretty good until they went the Oracle way with their licensing shenanigans, but even with that they were a lot cheaper than Oracle. In fact SQL server was one of the few great products that came out of MS.

[dcrazy]

SQL Server started as a source fork of Sybase.

[pjmlp]

Having done both, with much better tooling. Sybase never had anything comparable to SSMS.

[dcrazy]

I remember MMC snap-ins.

[pimeys]

Having written a rust client for it, even their documentation is absolutely stellar. You just read how the protocol works from the PDF and implement it.

Can't say the same about Oracle.

[KellyCriterion]

For the risk of getting downvoted:

MS SQL is today stil a very good product, using it now for more than 20 years in different applications.

And: The free version with max up to 50 GB (?) of DB size is a very good option for smaller environments/apps

[augusto-moura]

50GB sounds like nothing, but I believe you in the quality. Most big bucks paid databases need to be high quality though, otherwise they would fail as products

[sharadov]

I was a SQL server DBA early in my career, I've not used it in the last decade, glad to hear that it's still a great product.

[partyficial]

My first job was a SQL DBA. 15 years and 5 companies later, this startup I'm at (which got acquired recently), still uses SQL Server. It has stood the test of time.

[KellyCriterion]

Actually one of the very few really good MS products at all?

Visual Studio is also great and widely adopted.

But what else do they have? I had some good experiences with Exchange years ago, but this is just my personal experience, since most people seem to hate it.

What else do they have that is considered a good/solid product that you would recommend to someone?