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Nonetheless, said Merv Adrian, VP, research at analyst firm Gartner, “it knocks down a barrier.” The Linux release will motivate people who in the past found SQL Server’s Windows-only stance problematic. “Microsoft has wanted to be more of a leader in a world that is heterogeneous for a long time,” he added.

While the Linux version of SQL Server 2016 was not a surprise – Microsoft had announced it on the company’s blog days before – what did surprise attendees was an offer that surfaced the morning of the launch. In it, Microsoft targets its prime competitor in the database world, Oracle, with an offer to provide free SQL Server licenses to Oracle customers who switch, as long as they purchase Software Assurance. Until the end of June, it is sweetening the pot with free training and subsidized deployment services as well. It also provided a total cost of ownership analysis that showed that, for a similar set of features, Oracle was 11.7 times more expensive than the equivalent SQL Server installation.

Adrian said that although he knew a competitive thrust at Oracle was coming, he was surprised at the timing. But he acknowledged that there is an enormous cost differential between Microsoft and Oracle, noting that with Oracle, each new release has one big new feature that is priced separately, per core. “What’s most notable is Oracle’s degree of productizing add-ons,” he said. “Everything is extra.”