People run Microsoft software for a variety of reasons, and while it may shock people on HN and elsewhere - often times it is for reasons very similar to your Exchange statement at the end. It really truly works. SQL Server is a fantastic RDBMS at the mid and high end of the market. 1000 people are rolling their eyes right now because once upon a time they touched a system that used SQL Server and it was terrible and the developers were not happy. Give me a break, you can write crappy code for any system and SQL Server is no different.
As for Windows running the server, it has been a very long time since anyone tried to claim it inferior as a web server - about 5 years ago when Scott Guthrie's team made IIS modular the story changed and it is now every bit as capable as Apache.
Don't worry though, I wont try to defend Sharepoint.
The mix is there though, I have clients who run Windows on the server and Oracle as the DB. Also MySQL, Raven and one using Redis as a backing store. I have a client who runs a rails shops and use SQL Server as the backend because its BI stack is so strong and even have a client who is a 'Microsoft shop' who is considering ASP.NET MVC running on Linux pointing at a MongoDB repo.
What I recommend is based on the feature set they need and their access to talent, the cost of server licensing can sometimes play in the discussion but only at the lower end of the market (startups, small business).
As for Windows running the server, it has been a very long time since anyone tried to claim it inferior as a web server - about 5 years ago when Scott Guthrie's team made IIS modular the story changed and it is now every bit as capable as Apache.
Don't worry though, I wont try to defend Sharepoint.
The mix is there though, I have clients who run Windows on the server and Oracle as the DB. Also MySQL, Raven and one using Redis as a backing store. I have a client who runs a rails shops and use SQL Server as the backend because its BI stack is so strong and even have a client who is a 'Microsoft shop' who is considering ASP.NET MVC running on Linux pointing at a MongoDB repo.
What I recommend is based on the feature set they need and their access to talent, the cost of server licensing can sometimes play in the discussion but only at the lower end of the market (startups, small business).