title: Are there mainstream RDBMS's ("databases") that do NOT optimize on the ">" or "<" symbolic operator?
body: <p>I ran into this <a href="http://hungred.com/useful-information/ways-optimize-sql-queries/" rel="nofollow">article</a> that states that this query:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE COLUMN &gt; 16
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>is slower than</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT * FROM TABLE WHERE COLUMN &gt;= 17
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The reason for this is that</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>[the query] is not optimized due to the fact that the DBMS will have
    to look for the value 16 THEN scan forward to value 16</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>The second query is faster because</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>This way the DBMS might jump straight away to [the] value </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I have a hard time believing that mainstream RDBMS's (postgres, oracle, mysql/maria, DB2, etc) are really that "dumb" -- aren't they smart enough to optimize this difference themselves?</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone confirm or deny that this is (or is not) the case on most mainstream RDBMS's?</p>