OK. While the post is an obvious challenge, there is nothing there to justify the prejudical implementation rules with which you responded.
His selection of SQL Server appears very fair- no artifact from old hardware or OS to disadvantage dotNET, also prevents inappropriate attribution of SQL Server's capability to either development environment.
The rest seems perfectly neutral. He even proposes independent scoping to ensure balance.
If your concern is that he is most likely correct in his assertions at this stage in 2005, so what? I'd say almost everybody here already knows about dotNET and data. We also know that MS is sorting it out. The fact that MS is sorting it out is a compelling cue for learning about dotNET, something to be emphasized not obfuscated. JMHO.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
