I can't speak for the MS SQL tools. I used one of them once? and it was extremely lame but I can't comment.
Compared to every other RDBMS GUI I've used:
It crashes very infrequently. It doesn't randomly slow down whenever I click on something. The settings page is relatively straightforward. There aren't fifteen different windows with different functions. The UI makes sense and is also very straightforward.
re: MS SQL Server tools and lame - really? The SQL 2000 tools were pretty basic, but since about 2005 they've been pretty good. I'd be interested to hear what you found lame. I guess maybe you were using something else from MS' cornucopia of GUI database tools (a plethora of wizards inside visual studio, access etc).
So, I was rescuing an MS Access application that imperfectly synched from a MySQL instance powering the Rails app from which it got data, that had been exported to MS SQL that was running (surprisingly well) inside a Windows XP VM I was accessing via Remote Desktop Connection.
So: I have no idea. I totally forget. It was some really-complicated-looking MS tool that allowed me to look at the table row by row and run some queries :). The guy I was working for set it up; my excuse is I stopped using windows back in 2004.
Compared to every other RDBMS GUI I've used:
It crashes very infrequently. It doesn't randomly slow down whenever I click on something. The settings page is relatively straightforward. There aren't fifteen different windows with different functions. The UI makes sense and is also very straightforward.