Hi,

I would like a simple and recent comparison between MySQL and MS SQL
in terms of reliability, total cost of ownership with reference to
hosted servers, as well as easy of use and performance.

I'm trying to consolidate development in an environment that has
MySQL, PHP, Perl on Linux as well as MS SQL, ASP on WinNT to purely be
MySQL with PHP and if needed, some Perl on Linux.  We host these
applications and sites so the cost of MS SQL DB hosting and setup
charges at the upper market hosting companies should be considered in
terms of cost considerations.

How popular are the two MySQL/PHP/Perl/Linux <> MS SQL/ASP/Win in
contrast?

Priorities:

1. Brief.
2. Covers the mentioned concerns.

Thank you.

/Lizardnation

Hi,

MySQL is less costly in comparision to MSSQL. You can use PHP and ASP
both with MySQL. With more and more people going for Linux
enviornment, it is getting popular day by day. The cost for Linux
enviornment is less compare to Win but the maintainance in linux
server is more than the same in win nt.

Do you want to have a dedicated server? 

Kumar

MySQL is MUCH less expensive and depending on your use totally free. 
Here is a quick comparison:

Linux: Free
MySQL: Free (depending on usage)
PHP: Free 

On the other hand you will have to pay for a Windows Server and even
more for SQL server if you want to run a Windows environment.  Not to
mention if you really need to continue to support ASP, there is a
product that Sun Microsystems makes called ChiliSoft ASP which allows
you to run ASP in a Linux/Unix environment.  You may want to look into
that.

Bottom line, unless you are looking to create a flagship internet site
(like Amazon, etc.) MySQL will work perfectly.  And in the case you
are creating a flagship site, you would probably want to use Oracle
anyway.  My recommendation: switch to a MySQL/PHP environment running
on Linux or Windows NT (MySQL and PHP will run on both)