Microsoft Does It Again!

Talk about screw-ups! Last time it was Zune that wasn’t compatible with Windows… now it is Vista that is not compatible with Microsoft’s own database server… SQL Server! Ouch!

Vista flaw could haunt Microsoft

“The latest evidence that Microsoft has lost its Midas Touch? Its bid for a bigger piece of the $14 billion database business, a sector now ruled by Oracle and IBM. Until now, Microsoft has been doing what it does best to attract corporate customers: It has tied its SQL Server database management software to programs running on Windows desktops. But now Microsoft has a problem. Vista, its long-awaited update to the Windows operating system, can’t run the current version of SQL Server. The company is working on a SQL upgrade that is compatible with Vista – called SQL Server 2005 Express Service Pack 2 – but it’s in beta and can be licensed only for testing purposes. Microsoft hasn’t set a release date for the new SQL program. So companies looking to install Vista, which went on sale to corporate customers Nov. 30, are going to have to get their database management software someplace else.”