I haven't had a desktop query tool in years
09 Apr 2026
I just noticed someone on a huge monitor working in a query tool – the kind where you type out the query up top and surf an Excel-like spreadsheet down below – and realized that it’s been a while since I needed one of those installed onto my machine.
I’ve been in-browser ones that help me grab a quick answer here and there – think Azure Resource Graph Explorer.
And I think I installed some sort of Oracle SQL Developer / SQL Server Management Studio (“SSMS”)-like product for SQLite – maybe DBBrowser? – onto my personal computer a year ago for a side project that never went anywhere.
But wow – yeah, it’s been a while since I worked regularly in a proper desktop-installed database GUI client!
- I still work a lot with people who have database GUI clients installed.
- I still advise all the time how various concepts in working with data could impact bigger architectural decisions.
- I even still process and generate spreadsheets or do quick relational-style manipulations of data quite regularly – but PowerShell and Excel usually suffice, because it’s typically just ephemeral data that needs to be transformed, one-off, so a bigger initiative can move forward.
I already knew that my day-to-day didn’t involve querying and ETL against relational database management system (“RDBMS”) servers as often as it used to.
Nevertheless, noticing what I don’t have installed full-time onto my professional laptop just really brought it home, big-time.
Interesting!
