By now you will have heard that the next version of SQL Server has been announced. There’s no release date yet, but Brent Ozar seems to think it’ll be before June.
There are many new features, but the biggest deal is that SQL Server 2017 runs on both Windows Server and Linux. Yup, SQL Server 2017 is certified to run on Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, and SuSE. (You can even run it on macOS in a Docker container.)
There are some big improvements to the Query Optimizer as well, starting with Adaptive Query Processing. It’s like a smart go-faster button, making incremental improvements to your queries the more often they run.
Despite being in pre-release mode, Microsoft states that 2017 is production-ready, which means that it should work as expected.
Watch the announcement, and download the latest technical preview to try it for yourself.