SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 19.1 and Recent Changes, Part 3

m60freeman Before we GA any new version, we have previews. For SSMS 19, previews started in early 2022, with four total. Add-in authors can start developing against a preview, with the understanding that things are still in flight and can change.

SSMS 19 GA'd in January 2023. As I mentioned in the post, we'll have a preview of SSMS 20 in Q4 of this year at the earliest. It will be at least one full year between SSMS 19.0 and SSMS 20.0, likely longer.

SSMS 19 and SSMS 20 will be closer together than previous major version changes because for this ONE release we are not releasing at the same time as the box product. This is the first time it's happened since SSMS was first released in 2005, 18 years ago. The alternative is that all SSMS users wait until the next box release (date unknown) to get 64-bit SSMS.

While some folks would prefer we not have frequent releases, there are others that state we aren't releasing fast enough. Ultimately, we are doing our best to balance what we have to do and what users are asking us to do.