Re: Oracle database is the best
"Flashback query, external tables, standby with real time apply, and pl/sql are features that MS SQL Server just cannot match."
erm - no - SQL has at least rough equivalents to all of those.
Flashback - You can create live, transactionally consistent Database Snapshots of the database and then use that to find out what changes have happened on the database since the snapshot was created. You can also restore the database to and from any previous state using snapshots. You can use also Change Data Capture to monitor the insert/update/delete activity on the table that is being monitored by CDC.
External tables - You can use OPENROWSET with the BULK keyword. It is different from the external table because you don't "create" a table but more of a query. Or you can use the Jet Text IISAM to do this as well. Create a linked server using the Text IISAM, a CSV file to contain the data, then insert the desired data into the CSV.
Standby with Real time apply - SQL server replication has a variety of options such as snapshot, transactional (real time apply) or merge based, and you can have live read only secondary servers too.
pl/sql - the SQL server equivalent is T-SQL.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
