Why do .NET shops seem to prefer Crystal Report over RDLC reports?

Question

I am currently using RDLC reports. But when interviewing for .NET jobs, they frequently ask "Have you worked with Crystal Reports?".

Why do they like Crystal Reports when Visual Studio already has RDLC reports integrated?

Answer 1

People use Crystal Reports because it came in the box with MS tools for so long (or at least a version featuring a subset of the functionality did).

It should be more important to demonstrate an understanding of use of a reporting tool than specific knowledge of Crystal, if its not remember that interviews work both ways...

Answer 2

Interviewers ask more about Crystal Reports because it is a way more common name, and has been quite popular for years. If you don't use Crystal Reports, when they ask that you can answer and say RDLC Reports, and then explain the similarities and differences.

Answer 3

I work in an all .NET shop in a 'big company' and we have never used Crystal Reports for anything! Every single report that we have is run using SQL Server Reporting Services and so far it's been absolutely great for us. Once you get the hang of it it's actually a really powerful tool, especially coupled with Report Builder 3.0. It's very easy to get a report whipped up and out to the user quickly; I really hate writing reports so the less painful the better for me.

On an entirely other note, I have been using the amazingly awesome DoddleReport for all of our asp.net mvc 3 development. It has truly been a time saver and just a great experience. I've even used it in my own personal web apps and can't see using anything else, especially when using the cloud since it's impossible to get hosted SSRS working.