[AccessD] New SQL Server license scheme is RADICALLLY moreexpensive

I second that thought. 

The only reason I was holding on to MS was because of their MS Access
product, which at the time of its creation had a more than adequate DB, an
excellent user interface and had a great reporting engine.

It appears now that the product is become more crippled, as MS is no longer
willing or able to provide sufficient resources to keep their product stable
or able to handle the current data requirements. That is really too bad as
MS Access is being allowed to die.

MS has had two things going for it. One, a great application platform and
two, a great Office application to run on that platform. 

Microsoft is now being hit from two directions. 

One, Linux has always been a very stable server product but now the same can
be said for their desktops, add to that low cost Open Office products. When
we come to database support for Linux this is where you hit the mother lode.
There are numerous DBs of every size and complexity and many of them are
very mature and have excellent interfaces and companion development
applications. 

Two, Web based applications. That market is just starting but it will not be
long before every application you can find on a desktop will be able to be
found in a web-based alternative. MS unfortunately, dropped the ball on
this. At one point, they held almost 90 percent of the browser market but
due to neglect, like in Access, they have lost that market too. (IE use is
now below 50 percent and it is dropping at half a percent a month.)

I hope this is not depressing anyone but I see the market opening up with so
many great opportunities but Microsoft products will just become one of a
few supported product lines and not the only one.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 7:47 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] New SQL Server license scheme is RADICALLLY
moreexpensive

 > I doubt seriously that the licensing for a<50 person corp is NOT
negotiable. MSFT is just testing 
the waters with that kind of licensing fee IMHO.

I would guess so.  The problem is that once you dive in to the water you are
in for the long haul.

Free?
Not??

I can run MySQL on Windows 2008 and have a full on server with most of the
bells and whistles.  the 
cost is in coming up to speed in a new environment, but once done then it is
very low cost.

Or I can run MSSQL.  They were already balking (unable to afford really) the
$8K or so for the SQL 
Server Standard Edition.

But we are about to move a full system, ~200 tables to something.  Moving
that big a database  is 
going to be time consuming and expensive just in migration costs and
testing.

Do I move it to SQL Server 2008 Express?  That doesn't seem a good bet.  Do
I move to SQl Server 
2008 Standard and get locked in only to have MS really whack them around in
the 2011 license costs? 
  Or do I make the break and just go MySQL (or something else)?

I am recommending that we just make a clean break right now.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it