I am a developer. I code in .net, but I also develop in sql server as well. If you ask my opinion, the developers out there that don't like sql server it is because it is different than developing in .net or C or whatever language they are writing code. It is a bit of a step, to think of set based solutions. In most developer languages you don't do a lot with sets of data. You might return a set of data to display, but not like you do in sql. I guess the entity framework allows you to work with sets of data, but so far I haven't enjoyed the entity framework much.

When I first started working with sql 6.5 14 years ago, it was a challenge to change my thinking. I was tempted to say, the DBA has to write all the database code. I am glad I didn't and I am a better developer for knowing sql server and how to develop in it.

Ben