Why is READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT not on by default?

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Simple question?

Why is READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT not on by default?

I'm guessing either backwards compatibility, performance, or both?

[Edit] Note that I'm interested in the effect relating to the READ_COMMITTED isolation level, and not the snapshot isolation level.

Why would this be a breaking-change, as it holds less locks, and still doesn't read non-committed rows?

3 Answers
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