>In the company you work for and dealing with customers seeking its services, or extrapolated across the galaxy? ;-)

Kevin seems to have done the latter based on the former ;-)

Mike and JR...

My original statement was that a much greater % of shops are transitioning/have transitioned to SQL 2008 since its release in August 2008, compared to the period after SQL 2005 was released (in Nov 2005).

First, this is generally accepted by many training shops. Go ask places like SQM.

Second, for over 2 years after 2005 was released, I talked to other developers who spoke at/attended different user groups both here and in the U.K. Their observations were simlar to mine - that over half the attendees were still in 2000. Even at DevTeach 2007, I talked to attendees who were hacked off at their employers for not moving to 2005 - some acknowledged that their employer had decided to wait until (what was at that time) Katmai.

Third, for over two years now I've spoken with recruting shops, employers, usually for references. This happens regularly. I get to find out about different shops across the country and the types of database projects they're working on. I also hear from students after they start working somewhere. I've been pleasantly suprised to find out not only how many had already switched to 2008, but also the # that are looking at R2 and SharePoint 2010.

At user group events that I've attended over the last year and a half, the % of people who are working with 2008 is definitely much higher. I also have heard similar feedback from other speakers. I hear news from places like Oregon, Pittsburgh, Texas, Florida, Michigan....

Those are facts. It's difficult to understand why anyone would challenge something that is rather obvious - that a higher % are physically moving to the newest version with greater speed than 4-5 years ago

So why is this happening? Several reasons. Here are a few. MS ran a more aggressive and more open beta/CTP program for 2008 than 2005. The success of more organized community efforts like SQL Saturday (a huge success in the Southeast and now spreading like wildfire) have helped to spread information about newer tools. Conversely, a % of DBAs were (rightly or wrongly) a bit superstitious about 2005 because of the .NET/CLR issue, and there's a general theory that some DBAs resisted on 2005 because there was more in 2005 for the applications developer than the DBA. Well, 2008 is more 'DBA-friendly' - and with the announcment over a year ago that suppport for 2000 would be dropped, it increased the odds that people would leap-frog from 2000 to 2008 sooner rather than later.

OK, I've provided a rather wide range of data points (and could go further). Care to show me something in refutation (beyond rather silly innuendos)? <s>