I know that a lot of SQL is likely still C/C++, but MS does put a bit of effort into being able to be cross-platform. I don't know how much of SQL is tightly coupled to windows, but it wouldn't surprise me if MS wanted to they could do a linux, or OSX release.
Just look at SQL's installer for tools, it really seems to be a gui on top of some cli tools. Its' origins are in Sybase, which IIRC supported a few platforms early on. MS-SQL is a pretty good value compared to say Oracle. The management interface as well as scaling (replication) support is very well integrated. I've wished PostgreSQL could get to this level in the box for years now.
I think this has more to do with developer mindshare than anything, especially with Azure as a platform. If you can write .Net apps and run wherever it's very appealing. Even with Mono it was a nice story to have. Integration with system libraries to .Net is much easier than Java's JNI and the like. If I can write C# in VS and deploy to Linux as easily as with windows, it will likely return as my back-end of choice.
Just look at SQL's installer for tools, it really seems to be a gui on top of some cli tools. Its' origins are in Sybase, which IIRC supported a few platforms early on. MS-SQL is a pretty good value compared to say Oracle. The management interface as well as scaling (replication) support is very well integrated. I've wished PostgreSQL could get to this level in the box for years now.
I think this has more to do with developer mindshare than anything, especially with Azure as a platform. If you can write .Net apps and run wherever it's very appealing. Even with Mono it was a nice story to have. Integration with system libraries to .Net is much easier than Java's JNI and the like. If I can write C# in VS and deploy to Linux as easily as with windows, it will likely return as my back-end of choice.