Reverse your thinking. Think of a business that's dependent on MSSQL -- now they can run in on Linux, and also, they won't need to think about DB server migration. Many businesses are gravitating towards Linux on the server for many reasons, but they don't necessarily want to change their DB technology.
In other words: MS isn't just trying to acquire new users, it tries to keep existing ones.
This 10x. We're a very large consumer of MS licenses, and even so, we're pushing out to Linux where we can. And of all the MS technologies we use, the one we'd never give up is MSSQL.
I couldn't agree more here. SQL Server is the only server product from MS I won't move off. I'm running an MS server only to run SQL Server. I would love to use a linux instance.
Reverse your thinking. It's not about enabling people to move to Linux while keeping not ms sql. It's about making sure the people who are moving to Linux either way don't also move away from ms sql
In other words: MS isn't just trying to acquire new users, it tries to keep existing ones.