MySQL, and MS SQL are examples of databases. There are many types of databases made by different companies and organizations but each database have their own specific purposes and are targeted at specific markets. Two of the major database platforms available are MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server. MySQL is for the Linux hosting or Unix hosting customer, while SQL Server is for the Window’s hosting person.
MySQL is an open source project and cross-platform compatible, which means it can run on both Windows and Linux operating systems. MySQL is generally used on a Linux platform such as Red Hat Linux or CentOS. MySQL is enterprise level and commercially supported database platform that is becoming popular day by day.
SQL Server is the database platform that has been developed, maintained and distributed by the Microsoft. Microsoft has made a huge investment on SQL Server as lot of Microsoft’s products depend on SQL Server to function, some Microsoft products have almost been built around SQL Server and many Microsoft customers solely depend on SQL Server.
While the SQL server is a closed source project purposely developed for large companies and enterprise level applications. The potential of small business market also attracted Microsoft to launch new edition of SQL targeted at smaller customer. Both SQL and MySQL are developing additional features to make it more efficient and effective so to cater various demands of enterprise level applications from various companies.