Pigs sure did sprout wings yesterday when Microsoft announced, without warning or preface, that it was doing the previously unthinkable: producing a version of SQL Server for Linux.

This shakeup has implications for things far beyond SQL Server. Here are eight insights into why this matters — for Microsoft, its customers, and the rest of the Linux- and cloud-powered world.

1. This is huge

The facts alone are seismic. Microsoft has for the first time issued one of its server products on a platform other than Windows Server.

You wanted proof Microsoft is a very different company now than it was even two or three years ago? Here it is. Under Steve Ballmer’s “Linux is cancer” reign, the most Microsoft could muster was a grudging admission of Linux’s existence. Now there’s the sense that Linux is a crucial part of Microsoft’s future and a vital component in its continued survival and success. Definitely not Dad’s Microsoft.

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