Reading is fundamental, and fundamentally, here are the 2025 blog posts that y’all read the most this year. (This list doesn’t include the most popular timeless posts overall.)

10. Free Spring Training Webcasts – I’ve noticed that people have near-zero interest these days in paying to attend live online classes, but they’re still really interested in free ones, and they still pay for recorded classes. Weird. I’m guessing that’s a Zoom fatigue thing.

9. The 6 Best Things Microsoft Ever Did to SQL Server – Hey, the worst things list didn’t make the top 10 cut! I love it. Y’all are glass-half-full people.

8. SQL Server 2025 Makes Memory Troubleshooting Easier – With a new sys.dm_os_memory_health_history DMV.

7. What’s Coming in SQL Server 2025: DMV Edition – Leading up to releases, it’s fun to go spelunking through the system tables and undocumented stuff to figure out what Microsoft hasn’t announced yet, including limitations to features.

6. SQL Server 2025 Is Out and Standard Goes Up to 32 Cores, 256GB RAM – I had most of this post written months in advance, but the 32 core 256GB RAM thing was a pleasant surprise.

5. Microsoft Introduced AI Integrations for SQL Server – Specifically, an MCP server that you can install. Looking back in the rear view mirror, I don’t think this is going to be really popular, and it’s a shame because it adds some pretty cool capabilities.

4. How I Configure SSMS v21 – Which is already outdated because v22 has a totally different tools-options menu. (sigh) I suppose that means I’ve got an opportunity for a popular post in 2026.

3. Fabric Is Just Plain Unreliable, and Microsoft’s Hiding It – And after publication, Microsoft did the right thing and put up a (mostly) honest status page.

2. What’s New in SQL Server 2025 – Except this isn’t the post you’re expecting. This is the April 1 version.

1. SQL Server Reporting Services is Dead. Is SSIS Next? You know what’s really funny? After this went live, I got a lot of private off-the-record emails from Microsoft folks saying, “SSRS isn’t dead, it just basically got a name change.” But nobody, not one single soul, emailed me about the latter part about the blog post title. Hmm.

Most-Commented 2025 Posts

Here were the posts y’all commented the most on this year – and it’s a different list! It’s always hard to predict which ones are gonna light the comment section on fire, and I should be doing more of the contest posts.

10. SQL Server 2025 is Out (35) – lots of discussion about the new features, like Standard Edition going up to 256GB RAM.

9. How I Configure SSMS v21 (37) – which, like I said, is already outdated, because v22 is out with a totally different tools-options menu.

8. SSRS is Dead. Is SSIS Next? (37) – the writing is on the wall, folks.

7. The 6 Best Things Microsoft Ever Did to SQL Server (45) – let’s be honest: this is a pretty fun database platform to work with.

6. Query Exercise: Return Routes in the Right Order (51) – this one stemmed from a client problem that is so much harder than it looks at first glance.

5. The 8 Worst Things Microsoft Ever Did to SQL Server (71) – and of course y’all wanted to bring up more bad memories, heh.

4. Why Aren’t People Going to Local and Regional In-Person Events Anymore? (86) – I shared a few reasons and y’all brought up more good points.

3. Why I Mention My Sexuality and Gender (97) – just once a year (or less), I bring it up, and every year, the comment section gets rowdy immediately. I don’t expect that will change during my lifetime, and that’s why it won’t stop, ha ha ho ho.

2. Make the Comment Section Look Like a Junior DBA’s Search History (139) – lots of laughs.

1. We Hit 50,000 YouTube Subscribers (176) – another contest. I’m proud of that milestone because I never say stuff in the videos like “like and bash that subscribe button”, hahaha.