Why not let the platform be agnostic, or allow native deployment outside of windows land?<p>Case in point, running mysql needs a separate web role and costs >$80 where SQL server is $10 (old prices?).<p>If your building on top of .Net then take advantage of all that native goodness. Otherwise you face an uphill battle in terms of getting it to just work and pricing.<p>Don't let this ruby carrot fool you...