Because the Mac runs SQL Server inside a Docker container, the first thing we need to do is download and install Docker (unless it's already installed). This is a prerequisite for installing SQL Server on your Mac. Therefore, there's no need to install a virtual machine with Windows (which was the only way to run SQL Server on a Mac prior to SQL Server 2017). This is made possible by running SQL Server from a Docker container. Microsoft has made SQL Server available for macOS and Linux systems. Install SQL Server directly to your Mac - no virtual machine required!
