Sybase SQL Server

Nowadays when someone speaks of "SQL Server", it usually refers to Microsoft SQL Server. Few still remember that it is derived from Sybase SQL Server.

This was another occurrence of Microsoft's disloyal, anticompetitive behaviour. When MS OS/2 needed another SQL implementation besides IBM's in order to gain legitimacy, Microsoft decided to license Sybase SQL Server. It marketed it under its own brand under OS/2, and later under its successor MS Windows NT, with a market sharing agreement with Sybase that would forfeit the OS/2 market, with Microsoft agreeing not to sell it to other plaforms.

After Microsoft learned enough, it broke the contract with Sybase, developing SQL Server independently with little or no compensation to Sybase.

The original Microsoft SQL Server was based on Sybase SQL Server version 4.2. There were rumors that Microsoft attempted to purchase Sybase but that it was not possible because Sybase's share prices were much too high for Microsoft's appetite. It is interesting to note that the technical difficulties experienced by Sybase in improving their database engine through versions 4.9.x through 11 were also experienced by Microsoft with their 4.2 code base. That is why Microsoft SQL server did not appear to be enterprise ready until version 6.5 or 7. An example of this issue was the page locking versus row locking feature.

The same behaviour happened against the Spyglass version of the original NCSA Mosaic, which became MS Internet Explorer with no compensation to the original license holders; the BSD IP stack which was simply hoarded; and Stac Electronics's Stacker filesystem compressing software, which was first pirated and then bought by Microsoft to create its DoubleSpace product.