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Comment by dbattaglia | Hacker News Reader

"Works mostly as advertised, although it’s not clear whether some behaviors are a bug or a feature."

This one may have come from a real SQL Server review.

It actually comes from Itzik Ben Gan's presentation, "Bug or Feature." He covers an array of SQL Server behaviors and asks the audience to guess whether it's a bug or feature, and then explains the answer.

Not to be glib, but couldn't I make this comment about nearly any "enterprise" software? Though, I guess as a whole, this entire review could be applied to nearly anything--since it's largely illustrate how ignorant users are. At least, I thought that was the point (pre-coffee).

Without a doubt. It's especially true with something like SQL Server though, where it's sheer scale brings it close to something of an operating system on its own. I find myself scratching my head because of it on a weekly basis; of course 99% of the time its more from my own ignorance than any fault of SS (and I'm sure most Oracle/MySQL/Postresql users all feel the same way).

I'm not a DBA by any measure, so I sort of find myself the same way when acclimating myself to any database--let alone the non-rational ones. I really have come to value a good DBA having to do some stuff myself at a smaller company. The shearing amount of planning and worry into setting up a DB for something like a CMS gives me ulcers.

I will say, though, I'd much rather be working with MSSQL than Oracle. Though, I might be using the wrong tools for the latter. I do feel somewhat "loved" by MS though as far as c#/VS tooling for MSSQL.

Given enough users, all bugs become features, to someone. This kind of user/product interlocking happens a lot in Microsoft software (document formats, ie6, sql, etc).

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