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Can I install SQL Server on Linux and UNIX platforms?

Yes, starting with SQL Server 2017, Microsoft provides a Linux port of SQL Server, which contains "core relational database capabilities".

The SQL Server ODBC driver enables you to access SQL Server from applications running on Linux and UNIX platforms. The driver supports both the Windows and Linux versions of SQL Server. You can therefore either integrate your Linux and UNIX applications with SQL Server on Windows, retaining the benefits of the full featured version, or have an all-Linux SQL Server solution.

SQL Server uses a protocol called Tabular Data Stream (TDS) for communication between client applications and SQL Server. Because TDS can be used over TCP/IP, remote client applications can communicate with SQL Server. It's not therefore necessary for client applications and SQL Server to run on the same machine.

ODBC, which provides a standard way for applications to access databases, is one of the available client library APIs that can provide an interface to TDS. Microsoft has supported ODBC in all versions of SQL Server and has committed to continue to support ODBC in future versions of SQL Server. Microsoft's SQL Server Native Client, which enables Windows client applications to access SQL Server, contains an ODBC driver.

The SQL Server ODBC driver provides ODBC access to SQL Server for Linux and UNIX applications, and uses TDS to communicate with SQL Server.

If you want to use SQL Server, but don't have any Windows machines at your site, you can use SQL Azure instead. SQL Azure provides database functionality as a pay-as-you-go utility service and is built on SQL Server technologies. Because SQL Azure uses TDS, client applications can use the same tools and libraries to access SQL Azure Database as they do to access SQL Server. The SQL Azure ODBC driver enables you to access SQL Azure from Linux and UNIX platforms.