Yes, you are reading the title right. Remember, Microsoft is no more the Steve Ballmer's Microsoft; It is now Satya Nadela that gives the direction for the company. They are probably doing this to compete with Oracle, IBM, SAP and increase its share on the database software market.It's no surprise to get an early look at MS SQL Server on Linux but it does excite Linux software distributors like Ubuntu, Red Hat:
“We are delighted to be working with Microsoft as it brings SQL Server to Linux. Customers are already taking advantage of Azure Data Lake services on Ubuntu, and now developers will be able to build modern applications that utilize SQL Server's enterprise capabilities.”
- Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical.
“SQL Server's proven enterprise experience and capabilities offer a valuable asset to enterprise Linux customers around the world. We believe our customers will welcome this news and are happy to see Microsoft further increasing its investment in Linux. As we build upon our deep hybrid cloud partnership, spanning not only Linux, but also middleware, and PaaS, we're excited to now extend that collaboration to SQL Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, bringing enterprise customers increased database choice”
- Paul Cormier, Red Hat